Important Notice: Our web hosting provider recently started charging us for additional visits, which was unexpected. In response, we're seeking donations. Depending on the situation, we may explore different monetization options for our Community and Expert Contributors. It's crucial to provide more returns for their expertise and offer more Expert Validated Answers or AI Validated Answers. Learn more about our hosting issue here.

Why do we begin by looking for eigenfunctions of ?

April 26, 2017eigenfunctions

0

10 Posted

Why do we begin by looking for eigenfunctions of ?

1 Answer

0

10 Posted

I started this way to show that what you get is a plane wave: and plane waves are eigenfunctions of momentum. Hence, they have definite momentum values, which is another way of saying that they are localized in momentum. Then, we moved on to considering superpositions of plane waves.