- •1. Introduction
- •2. Supersymmetry essentials
- •2.1. A new spacetime symmetry
- •2.2. Supersymmetry and the weak scale
- •2.3. The neutral supersymmetric spectrum
- •2.4. R-Parity
- •2.5. Supersymmetry breaking and dark energy
- •2.6. Minimal supergravity
- •2.7. Summary
- •3. Neutralino cosmology
- •3.1. Freeze out and wimPs
- •3.2. Thermal relic density
- •3.2.1. Bulk region
- •1. Introduction
- •2. Construction of trial functions
- •2.1. A new formulation of perturbative expansion
- •2.2. Trial function for the quantum double-well potential
- •3. Hierarchy theorem and its generalization
- •4. Asymmetric quartic double-well problem
- •4.1. Construction of the first trial function
- •4.2. Construction of the second trial function
- •4.3. Symmetric vs asymmetric potential
- •5. The n-dimensional problem
- •1. Introduction
- •2. The star product formalism
- •3. Geometric algebra and the Clifford star product
- •4. Geometric algebra and classical mechanics
- •5. Non-relativistic quantum mechanics
- •6. Spacetime algebra and Dirac theory
- •7. Conclusions
- •1. Introduction
- •1.1. Historical overview
- •1.2. Aims of this article
- •2. Random curves and lattice models
- •2.1. The Ising and percolation models
- •2.1.1. Exploration process
- •2.2. O (n) model
- •2.3. Potts model
- •2.4. Coulomb gas methods
- •2.4.1. Winding angle distribution
- •2.4.2. N-leg exponent
- •3.1. The postulates of sle
- •3.2. Loewner’s equation
- •3.3. Schramm–Loewner evolution
- •3.4. Simple properties of sle
- •3.4.1. Phases of sle
- •3.4.2. Sle duality
- •3.5. Special values of κ
- •3.5.1. Locality
- •3.5.2. Restriction
- •3.6. Radial sle and the winding angle
- •3.6.1. Identification with lattice models
- •4. Calculating with sle
- •4.1. Schramm’s formula
- •4.2. Crossing probability
- •4.3. Critical exponents from sle
- •4.3.1. The fractal dimension of sle
- •4.3.2. Crossing exponent
- •4.3.3. The one-arm exponent
- •5. Relation to conformal field theory
- •5.1. Basics of cft
- •5.2. Radial quantisation
- •5.3. Curves and states
- •5.4. Differential equations
- •5.4.1. Calogero–Sutherland model
- •6. Related ideas
- •6.1. Multiple slEs
- •6.2. Other variants of sle
- •6.3. Other growth models
- •1. Introduction
- •1.1. Acoustic force field
- •1.2. Primary axial acoustic force
- •1.3. Primary and secondary acoustic force
- •2. Application of Newton’s second law
- •3. Mathematical model
- •3.1. Preliminary analysis
- •4. Equation for particle trajectories
- •5. Concentration equation
- •6. Experimental procedure and results
- •6.1. SiC particle trajectories in an acoustic field
- •7. Comparison between experimental results and mathematical model
- •8. Summary and conclusions
2.2. Trial function for the quantum double-well potential
To illustrate how to construct a trial function, consider the quartic potential in one dimension with degenerate minima:
(2.29) |
An alternative form of the same problem can be obtained by setting so that the Hamiltonian becomes
(2.30) |
where
(2.31) |
This shows that the dimensionless (small) expansion parameter is related to ; as it turns out, the relevant parameter is its square. In the following, we shall take a = 1 so that the expansion parameter is 1/g; in the literature [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13] and [14] one often finds the assumption 2ga = 1 (placing the second minimum of the potential at q = 1/g) so that reduces to g and the anharmonic potential appears as (1/2)q2 (1−gq)2. Then g appears with positive powers instead of negative, but the coefficients of the power series are the same as with our form of the potential, apart from the overall factor 2ga.
For the above potential (2.29), the Schroedinger equation (2.4) is (with a = 1)
(2.32) |
where, as before, ψ (x) = e−gS (x) is the ground state wave function and E its energy. Using the expansions Figs. (2.6) and (2.7) and following the steps Figs. (2.8) and (2.10), and Figs. (2.15), (2.16), (2.17), (2.18), (2.19), (2.20) and (2.21), we find the well-known perturbative series
(2.33) |
and
(2.34) |
Both expansions S = S0 + g−1S1 + g−2S2 + and E = gE0 + E1 + g−1E2 + are divergent, furthermore, at x = −1 and for n 1, each Sn (x) is infinite. The reflection x → −x gives a corresponding asymptotic expansion Sn (x) → Sn (−x), in which each Sn (−x) is regular at x = −1, but singular at x = +1. We note that for g large, the first few terms of the perturbative series (with (2.33) for x positive and the corresponding expansion Sn (x) → Sn (−x) for x negative) give a fairly good description of the true wave function ψ (x) whenever ψ (x) is large (i.e., for x near ±1). However, for x near zero, when ψ (x) is exponentially small, the perturbative series becomes totally unreliable. This suggests the use of first few terms of the perturbative series for regions whenever ψ (x) is expected to be large. In regions where ψ (x) is exponentially small, simple interpolations by hand may already be adequate for a trial function, as we shall see. Since the quartic potential (2.29) is even in x, so is the ground state wave function; likewise, we require the trial function (x) also to satisfy (x) = (−x). At x = 0, we require
(2.35) |
To construct (x), we start with the first two functions S0 (x) and S1 (x) in (2.33). Introduce, for x 0,
(2.36) |
and
(2.37) |
In order to satisfy (2.35), we define
(2.38) |
Thus, by construct ′ (0) = 0, (x) is continuous everywhere, for x from −∞ to ∞, and so is its derivative.
By differentiating + (x) and (x), we see that they satisfy
(T+V+u)+=g+ |
(2.39) |
and
(T+V+w)=g, |
(2.40) |
where
(2.41) |
and
w(x)=w(-x) |
(2.42) |
with, for x 0
(2.43) |
where
(2.44) |
Note that for g > 1, gˆ (x) is positive, and has a discontinuity at x = 1. Furthermore, for x positive both u (x) and gˆ (x) are decreasing functions of x. Therefore, w (x) also satisfies for x > 0,
w′(x)<0, |
(2.45) |
a property that is very useful in our proof of convergence which will be discussed in the next section.