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Probability amplitude
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In quantum mechanics, a probability amplitude is a complex number whose modulus squared represents a probability or probability density. For example, the values taken by a normalised wave function are amplitudes, since gives the probability density at position . Probability amplitudes may also correspond to probabilities of discrete outcomes.
The interpretation that the physical meaning of the wavefunction is probabilistic was proposed by Max Born, and it became a pillar of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
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In quantum mechanics, a probability amplitude is a complex number whose modulus squared represents a probability or probability density. For example, the values taken by a normalised wave function are amplitudes, since gives the probability density at position . Probability amplitudes may also correspond to probabilities of discrete outcomes.
The interpretation that the physical meaning of the wavefunction is probabilistic was proposed by Max Born, and it became a pillar of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In fact, the properties of the wave function were being used to make physical predictions (such as emissions from atoms being at certain discrete energies) before any physical interpretation of the wave function was offered. Born was awarded half of the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics for this realisation, though it was vigorously contested at the time by the original physicists working on the theory, such as Schrödinger and Einstein. Therefore, the probability thus calculated is sometimes called the "Born probability", and the relationship used to calculate probability from the wavefunction is sometimes called the Born rule.
These probability amplitudes have special significance because they assume many of the properties of conventional probability theory that cannot be made to apply in quantum mechanics. For example, in the classic double-slit experiment where electrons are fired randomly at two slits, the intuitive interpretation might be that , where is the probability of that event. However, it is impossible to observe which slit is passed through without altering the electron. Thus, when not watching the electron, the particle cannot be said to go through either slit and this simplistic explanation does not work. However, when adding the complex amplitudes taken by the two wavefunctions which represent the electron passing each slit: , the calculations agree with experiment. This is the principle of quantum superposition.
Wavefunctions as amplitudes
Normalisable states
The Schrödinger wave equation, describing states of quantum particles, has solutions that describe a system and determine precisely how the state changes with time. Suppose a state is a solution of the wave equation, giving a description of the particle (for time , position ). If the state is square integrable, i.e.
for some , then we call the normalised wave function. Under the standard Copenhagen interpretation, the normalised wavefunction gives probability amplitudes for the position of the particle. Hence, at a given time , is the probability density function of the particle's position. Thus the probability that the particle is in the volume at is
Note that if any solution to the wave equation is normalisable at some time , then the defined above is always normalised, so that
is always a probability density function for all . This is key to understanding the importance of this interpretation, because for a given initial , the Schrödinger equation fully determines subsequent wavefunction, and the above then gives the probable location of the particle at all subsequent times.
Non-normalisable states
Probability amplitudes which are not square integrable are usually interpreted as the limit of a series of functions which are square integrable. For example, the plane wave solution to the wave equation is not normalisable, so it is not possible to give a physical interpretation of it for a single particle. Instead, one way to interpret this solution is as an infinite stream of monochromatic (identical) particles, in this case the limit of the series giving the wavefunction for increasingly many particles. Another instance is thinking of the Siegert wave functions describing a resonance as the limit as of a time-dependent wave packet scattered at an energy close to a resonance. In these cases, the definition of given above is still valid, however we are now discussing probabilities when many particles are involved. Unlike with a normalisable distribution there could therefore be a high probability everywhere of finding some particle there.
Conservation relationship between probability amplitudes and probabilities
- For more details on this topic and the proof, see probability current.
Intuitively, since a normalised wave function stays normalised while evolving according to the wave equation, we can relate the change in the probability density of the particle's position to the change in the amplitude at these positions.
Define the probability current (or flux) as
measured in units of (probability)/(area × time).
Then the current satisfies the quantum continuity equation
Discrete amplitudes
While the wave function describes the state of a system for the continuous variable position, there are also many discrete variables to which probabilities may also be attached, which in quantum mechanics are found from complex amplitudes.
- For more details on this example, see finite potential barrier.
In the one-dimensional case of particles with energy less than in the square potential
the steady-state solutions to the wave equation have the form
The standard interpretation of this is as a stream of particles being fired at the step from the left (the direction of negative ): setting corresponds to firing particles singly; the terms containing , , and signify motion to the right, while , , and to the left. Under this beam interpretation, we put since no particles are coming from the right. By applying continuity of wave functions at the boundaries, it is hence possible to determine the constants above.
The conclusion is that the complex value is a probability amplitude, with a real interpretation in the problem. The corresponding probability describes the probability of a particle fired from the left being reflected by the potential barrier.
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