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Position Operator
In quantum mechanics, the position operator is the operator that corresponds to the position observable of a particle. When the position operator is considered with a wide enough domain (e.g. the space of tempered distributions), its eigenvalues are the possible position vectors of the particle. In one dimension, if by the symbol , x \rangle we denote the unitary eigenvector of the position operator corresponding to the eigenvalue x, then, , x \rangle represents the state of the particle in which we know with certainty to find the particle itself at position x. Therefore, denoting the position operator by the symbol X in the literature we find also other symbols for the position operator, for instance Q (from Lagrangian mechanics), \hat \mathrm x and so on we can write X, x\rangle = x , x\rangle, for every real position x. One possible realization of the unitary state with position x is the Dirac delta (function) distribution centered at the position x, often denoted by \ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale. Quantum mechanics differs from classical physics in that energy, momentum, angular momentum, and other quantities of a bound system are restricted to discrete values ( quantization); objects have characteristics of both particles and waves (wave–particle duality); and there are limits to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Position And 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 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 units of asslength] imesup>−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 and ideas tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compact Support
In mathematics, the support of a real-valued function f is the subset of the function domain containing the elements which are not mapped to zero. If the domain of f is a topological space, then the support of f is instead defined as the smallest closed set containing all points not mapped to zero. This concept is used very widely in mathematical analysis. Formulation Suppose that f : X \to \R is a real-valued function whose domain is an arbitrary set X. The of f, written \operatorname(f), is the set of points in X where f is non-zero: \operatorname(f) = \. The support of f is the smallest subset of X with the property that f is zero on the subset's complement. If f(x) = 0 for all but a finite number of points x \in X, then f is said to have . If the set X has an additional structure (for example, a topology), then the support of f is defined in an analogous way as the smallest subset of X of an appropriate type such that f vanishes in an appropriate sense on its complement. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuous Function
In mathematics, a continuous function is a function such that a continuous variation (that is a change without jump) of the argument induces a continuous variation of the value of the function. This means that there are no abrupt changes in value, known as '' discontinuities''. More precisely, a function is continuous if arbitrarily small changes in its value can be assured by restricting to sufficiently small changes of its argument. A discontinuous function is a function that is . Up until the 19th century, mathematicians largely relied on intuitive notions of continuity, and considered only continuous functions. The epsilon–delta definition of a limit was introduced to formalize the definition of continuity. Continuity is one of the core concepts of calculus and mathematical analysis, where arguments and values of functions are real and complex numbers. The concept has been generalized to functions between metric spaces and between topological spaces. The latter are the mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real Line
In elementary mathematics, a number line is a picture of a graduated straight line (geometry), line that serves as visual representation of the real numbers. Every point of a number line is assumed to correspond to a real number, and every real number to a point. The integers are often shown as specially-marked points evenly spaced on the line. Although the image only shows the integers from –3 to 3, the line includes all real numbers, continuing forever in each direction, and also numbers that are between the integers. It is often used as an aid in teaching simple addition and subtraction, especially involving negative numbers. In advanced mathematics, the number line can be called as a real line or real number line, formally defined as the set (mathematics), set of all real numbers, viewed as a geometry, geometric space (mathematics), space, namely the Euclidean space of dimension one. It can be thought of as a vector space (or affine space), a metric space, a topological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Function (mathematics)
In mathematics, a function from a set to a set assigns to each element of exactly one element of .; the words map, mapping, transformation, correspondence, and operator are often used synonymously. The set is called the domain of the function and the set is called the codomain of the function.Codomain ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics'Codomain. ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics''/ref> The earliest known approach to the notion of function can be traced back to works of Persian mathematicians Al-Biruni and Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi. Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity. For example, the position of a planet is a ''function'' of time. Historically, the concept was elaborated with the infinitesimal calculus at the end of the 17th century, and, until the 19th century, the functions that were considered were differentiable (that is, they had a high degree of regularity). The concept of a function was formalized at the end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lebesgue Measure
In measure theory, a branch of mathematics, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space. For ''n'' = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides with the standard measure of length, area, or volume. In general, it is also called ''n''-dimensional volume, ''n''-volume, or simply volume. It is used throughout real analysis, in particular to define Lebesgue integration. Sets that can be assigned a Lebesgue measure are called Lebesgue-measurable; the measure of the Lebesgue-measurable set ''A'' is here denoted by ''λ''(''A''). Henri Lebesgue described this measure in the year 1901, followed the next year by his description of the Lebesgue integral. Both were published as part of his dissertation in 1902. Definition For any interval I = ,b/math>, or I = (a, b), in the set \mathbb of real numbers, let \ell(I)= b - a denote its length. For any subset E\subseteq\mathbb, the Lebesgue oute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complex Number
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 a+bi, 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 are regarded in the mathematical sciences as just as "real" as the real numbers and are fundamental in many aspects of 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilbert Space
In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow generalizing the methods of linear algebra and calculus from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise naturally and frequently in mathematics and physics, typically as function spaces. Formally, a Hilbert space is a vector space equipped with an inner product that defines a distance function for which the space is a complete metric space. The earliest Hilbert spaces were studied from this point of view in the first decade of the 20th century by David Hilbert, Erhard Schmidt, and Frigyes Riesz. They are indispensable tools in the theories of partial differential equations, quantum mechanics, Fourier analysis (which includes applications to signal processing and heat transfer), and ergodic theory (which forms the mathematical underpinning of thermodynamics). John von Neumann coined the term ''Hilbert space'' for the abstract concept that under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lp Space
In mathematics, the spaces are function spaces defined using a natural generalization of the Norm (mathematics)#p-norm, -norm for finite-dimensional vector spaces. They are sometimes called Lebesgue spaces, named after Henri Lebesgue , although according to the Nicolas Bourbaki, Bourbaki group they were first introduced by Frigyes Riesz . spaces form an important class of Banach spaces in functional analysis, and of topological vector spaces. Because of their key role in the mathematical analysis of measure and probability spaces, Lebesgue spaces are used also in the theoretical discussion of problems in physics, statistics, economics, finance, engineering, and other disciplines. Applications Statistics In statistics, measures of central tendency and statistical dispersion, such as the mean, median, and standard deviation, are defined in terms of metrics, and measures of central tendency can be characterized as Central tendency#Solutions to variational problems, solutions to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State Space (physics)
In physics, a state space is an abstract space in which different "positions" represent, not literal locations, but rather states of some physical system. This makes it a type of phase space. Specifically, in quantum mechanics a state space is a complex Hilbert space in which the possible instantaneous ? ">Help:Find_sources.html" ;"title="Help:Find sources">? states of the system may be described by unit vectors. These quantum state, state vectors, using Paul Dirac, Dirac's bra–ket notation, can often be treated like coordinate vectors and operated on using the rules of linear algebra. This Dirac formalism of quantum mechanics can replace calculation of complicated integrals with simpler vector operations. See also *Configuration space (physics) for the space of possible positions that a physical system may attain *Configuration space (mathematics) for the space of positions of particles in a topological space *State space (controls) for information about state space in contro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spin (physics)
Spin is a conserved quantity carried by elementary particles, and thus by composite particles (hadrons) and atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei. Spin is one of two types of angular momentum in quantum mechanics, the other being ''orbital angular momentum''. The orbital angular momentum operator is the quantum-mechanical counterpart to the classical angular momentum of orbital revolution and appears when there is periodic structure to its wavefunction as the angle varies. For photons, spin is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of the Polarization (waves), polarization of light; for electrons, the spin has no classical counterpart. The existence of electron spin angular momentum is inferred from experiments, such as the Stern–Gerlach experiment, in which silver atoms were observed to possess two possible discrete angular momenta despite having no orbital angular momentum. The existence of the electron spin can also be inferred theoretically from the spin–statistics theorem and from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
