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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Alternative momentum concept for a quantum mechanical particle in a box

M. H. Al-Hashimi and U.-J. Wiese

  • Albert Einstein Center, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland

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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L042008 – Published 26 October, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042008

Abstract

For a particle in a box, the operator p̂=−i∂x is not self-adjoint. We provide an alternative construction of a momentum operator p̂R+ip̂I, which has two self-adjoint components p̂R and p̂I. This leads to a description of momentum measurements performed on a particle that is strictly limited to the interior of a box of size L, which yields quantized momentum values πn/L with n∈Z.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L042008– Published 26 October, 2021
  • Received 22 December 2020
  • Revised 14 July 2021
  • Accepted 15 September 2021
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