Summary

DescriptionStationaryStatesAnimation.gif	English: Three wavefunction solutions to the Time-Dependent Schrödinger equation for a harmonic oscillator. Left: The real part (blue) and imaginary part (red) of the wavefunction. Right: The probability of finding the particle at a certain position. The top two rows are the lowest two energy eigenstates, and the bottom is the superposition state ${\displaystyle \psi _{N}=(\psi _{0}+\psi _{1})/{\sqrt {2}}}$, which is not an energy eigenstate. The right column illustrates why energy eigenstates are also called "stationary states". Thus in every quantum stae,there are certain preferred positions of maximum probability
Date	20 March 2011
Source	Own work
Author	Sbyrnes321

(* Source code written in Mathematica 6.0 by Steve Byrnes, Feb. 2011. This source code is public domain. *)
(* Shows classical and quantum trajectory animations for a harmonic potential. Assume m=w=hbar=1. *)
ClearAll["Global`*"]
(*** Wavefunctions of the energy eigenstates ***)
psi[n_, x_] := (2^n*n!)^(-1/2)*Pi^(-1/4)*Exp[-x^2/2]*HermiteH[n, x];
energy[n_] := n + 1/2;
psit[n_, x_, t_] := psi[n, x] Exp[-I*energy[n]*t];
(*** A non-stationary state ***)
SeedRandom[1];
psinonstationary[x_, t_] := (psit[0, x, t]+psit[1, x, t])/Sqrt[2];

(*** Put all the plots together ***)
SetOptions[Plot, {PlotRange -> {-1, 1}, Ticks -> None, PlotStyle -> {Directive[Thick, Blue], Directive[Thick, Pink]}}];
MakeFrame[t_] := GraphicsGrid[
   {{Plot[{Re[psit[0, x, t]], Im[psit[0, x, t]]}, {x, -5, 5}, PlotLabel -> Subscript[\[Psi],0]], 
     Plot[Abs[psit[0, x, t]]^2, {x, -5, 5}, PlotStyle -> Directive[Thick, Black],
		PlotLabel -> TraditionalForm[Abs[Subscript[\[Psi],0]]^2]]},
   {Plot[{Re[psit[1, x, t]], Im[psit[1, x, t]]}, {x, -5, 5}, PlotLabel -> Subscript[\[Psi],1]], 
     Plot[Abs[psit[1, x, t]]^2, {x, -5, 5}, PlotStyle -> Directive[Thick, Black],
		PlotLabel -> TraditionalForm[Abs[Subscript[\[Psi],1]]^2]]},
   {Plot[{Re[psinonstationary[x, t]], Im[psinonstationary[x, t]]}, {x, -5, 5}, PlotLabel -> Subscript[\[Psi],N]], 
     Plot[Abs[psinonstationary[x, t]]^2, {x, -5, 5}, PlotStyle -> Directive[Thick, Black],
		PlotLabel -> TraditionalForm[Abs[Subscript[\[Psi],N]]^2]]}
   }, Frame -> All, ImageSize -> 300];
output = Table[MakeFrame[t], {t, 0, 4 Pi*40/41, 4 Pi/41}];
SetDirectory["C:\\Users\\Steve\\Desktop"]
Export["test.gif", output]

Licensing

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:

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