Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.03744 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Table of Contents:
- The quantum version of the free fall problem is a topic often skipped in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses because its discussion usually requires wavepackets built on the Airy functions -- a difficult computation. Here, on the contrary, we show that the problem can be nicely simplified both for a single particle and for general many-body systems by making use of a gauge transformation that corresponds to a change of reference frame from the laboratory frame to the one comoving with the falling system. Using this approach, the quantum mechanics problem of a particle in an external gravitational potential reduces to a much simpler one where there is no longer any gravitational potential in the Schrödinger equation. It is instructive to see that the same procedure can be used for many-body systems subjected to an external gravitational potential and a two-body interparticle potential that is a function of the distance between the particles. This topic provides a helpful and pedagogical example of a quantum many-body system whose dynamics can be analytically described in simple terms.