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Probability Flux
In quantum mechanics, the probability current (sometimes called probability flux) is a mathematical quantity describing the flow of probability. Specifically, if one thinks of probability as a heterogeneous fluid, then the probability current is the rate of flow of this fluid. It is a real vector that changes with space and time. Probability currents are analogous to mass currents in hydrodynamics and electric currents in electromagnetism. As in those fields, the probability current (i.e. the probability current density) is related to the probability density function via a continuity equation. The probability current is invariant under gauge transformation. The concept of probability current is also used outside of quantum mechanics, when dealing with probability density functions that change over time, for instance in Brownian motion and the Fokker–Planck equation. The relativistic equivalent of the probability current is known as the probability four-current. Definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is the foundation of all quantum physics, which includes quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Quantum mechanics can describe many systems that classical physics cannot. Classical physics can describe many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic and Microscopic scale, (optical) microscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at very small submicroscopic (atomic and subatomic) scales. Classical mechanics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation that is valid at ordinary scales. Quantum systems have Bound state, bound states that are Quantization (physics), quantized to Discrete mathematics, discrete values of energy, momentum, angular momentum, and ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wave Function
In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction) is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters and (lower-case and capital psi (letter), psi, respectively). Wave functions are complex number, complex-valued. For example, a wave function might assign a complex number to each point in a region of space. The Born rule provides the means to turn these complex probability amplitudes into actual probabilities. In one common form, it says that the squared modulus of a wave function that depends upon position is the probability density function, probability density of measurement in quantum mechanics, measuring a particle as being at a given place. The integral of a wavefunction's squared modulus over all the system's degrees of freedom must be equal to 1, a condition called ''normalization''. Since the wave function is complex-valued, only its relative phase and relative magnitud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charged Particle
In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. For example, some elementary particles, like the electron or quarks are charged. Some composite particles like protons are charged particles. An ion, such as a molecule or atom with a surplus or deficit of electrons relative to protons are also charged particles. A Plasma (physics), plasma is a collection of charged particles, atomic nuclei and separated electrons, but can also be a gas containing a significant proportion of charged particles. Charged particles are labeled as either '' positive'' (+) or ''negative'' (-). The designations are arbitrary. Nothing is inherent to a positively charged particle that makes it "positive", and the same goes for negatively charged particles. Examples Positively charged particles * protons * positrons (antielectrons) * positively charged pions * alpha particles * ion, cations Negatively charged particles * electrons * antiprotons * muons * tauons * negative charged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SI Units
The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official status in nearly every country in the world, employed in science, technology, industry, and everyday commerce. The SI system is coordinated by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which is abbreviated BIPM from . The SI comprises a coherent system of units of measurement starting with seven base units, which are the second (symbol s, the unit of time), metre (m, length), kilogram (kg, mass), ampere (A, electric current), kelvin (K, thermodynamic temperature), mole (mol, amount of substance), and candela (cd, luminous intensity). The system can accommodate coherent units for an unlimited number of additional quantities. These are called coherent derived units, which can always be represented as products of powers of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electromagnetic Field
An electromagnetic field (also EM field) is a physical field, varying in space and time, that represents the electric and magnetic influences generated by and acting upon electric charges. The field at any point in space and time can be regarded as a combination of an electric field and a magnetic field. Because of the interrelationship between the fields, a disturbance in the electric field can create a disturbance in the magnetic field which in turn affects the electric field, leading to an oscillation that propagates through space, known as an ''electromagnetic wave''. The way in which charges and currents (i.e. streams of charges) interact with the electromagnetic field is described by Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law. Maxwell's equations detail how the electric field converges towards or diverges away from electric charges, how the magnetic field curls around electrical currents, and how changes in the electric and magnetic fields influence each other. The Lor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Momentum Space
In physics and geometry, there are two closely related vector spaces, usually three-dimensional but in general of any finite dimension. Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all ''position vectors'' r in Euclidean space, and has dimensions of length; a position vector defines a point in space. (If the position vector of a point particle varies with time, it will trace out a path, the trajectory of a particle.) Momentum space is the set of all ''momentum vectors'' p a physical system can have; the momentum vector of a particle corresponds to its motion, with dimension of masslengthtime−1. Mathematically, the duality between position and momentum is an example of '' Pontryagin duality''. In particular, if a function is given in position space, ''f''(r), then its Fourier transform obtains the function in momentum space, ''φ''(p). Conversely, the inverse Fourier transform of a momentum space function is a position space function. These quantities an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Momentum Operator
In quantum mechanics, the momentum operator is the operator associated with the linear momentum. The momentum operator is, in the position representation, an example of a differential operator. For the case of one particle in one spatial dimension, the definition is: \hat = - i \hbar \frac where is the reduced Planck constant, the imaginary unit, is the spatial coordinate, and a partial derivative (denoted by \partial/\partial x) is used instead of a total derivative () since the wave function is also a function of time. The "hat" indicates an operator. The "application" of the operator on a differentiable wave function is as follows: \hat\psi = - i \hbar \frac In a basis of Hilbert space consisting of momentum eigenstates expressed in the momentum representation, the action of the operator is simply multiplication by , i.e. it is a multiplication operator, just as the position operator is a multiplication operator in the position representation. Note that the definition ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operator (mathematics)
In mathematics, an operator is generally a Map (mathematics), mapping or function (mathematics), function that acts on elements of a space (mathematics), space to produce elements of another space (possibly and sometimes required to be the same space). There is no general definition of an ''operator'', but the term is often used in place of ''function'' when the domain of a function, domain is a set of functions or other structured objects. Also, the domain of an operator is often difficult to characterize explicitly (for example in the case of an integral operator), and may be extended so as to act on related objects (an operator that acts on functions may act also on differential equations whose solutions are functions that satisfy the equation). (see Operator (physics) for other examples) The most basic operators are linear maps, which act on vector spaces. Linear operators refer to linear maps whose domain and range are the same space, for example from \mathbb^n to \mathbb^n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The gradient transforms like a vector under change of basis of the space of variables of f. If the gradient of a function is non-zero at a point p, the direction of the gradient is the direction in which the function increases most quickly from p, and the magnitude of the gradient is the rate of increase in that direction, the greatest absolute directional derivative. Further, a point where the gradient is the zero vector is known as a stationary point. The gradient thus plays a fundamental role in optimization theory, where it is used to minimize a function by gradient descent. In coordinate-free terms, the gradient of a function f(\mathbf) may be defined by: df=\nabla f \cdot d\mathbf where df is the total infinitesimal change in f for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wronskian
In mathematics, the Wronskian of ''n'' differentiable functions is the determinant formed with the functions and their derivatives up to order . It was introduced in 1812 by the Polish mathematician Józef Wroński, and is used in the study of differential equations, where it can sometimes show the linear independence of a set of solutions. Definition The Wrońskian of two differentiable functions and is W(f,g)=f g' - g f' . More generally, for real- or complex-valued functions , which are times differentiable on an interval , the Wronskian W(f_1,\ldots,f_n) is a function on x\in I defined by W(f_1, \ldots, f_n) (x)= \det \begin f_1(x) & f_2(x) & \cdots & f_n(x) \\ f_1'(x) & f_2'(x) & \cdots & f_n' (x)\\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\ f_1^(x)& f_2^(x) & \cdots & f_n^(x) \end. This is the determinant of the matrix constructed by placing the functions in the first row, the first derivatives of the functions in the second row, and so on through the (n-1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imaginary Part
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the form a + bi, where and are real numbers. Because no real number satisfies the above equation, was called an imaginary number by René Descartes. For the complex number is called the , and is called the . The set of complex numbers is denoted by either of the symbols \mathbb C or . Despite the historical nomenclature, "imaginary" complex numbers have a mathematical existence as firm as that of the real numbers, and they are fundamental tools in the scientific description of the natural world. Complex numbers allow solutions to all polynomial equations, even those that have no solutions in real numbers. More precisely, the fundamental theorem of algebra asserts that every non-constant polynomial equation with real or complex coefficients h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
