Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
3 votes
1 answer
209 views

Must solutions to the time-independent Schrodinger equation that have discrete or negative eigenvalues be square-integrable?

This is a very straightforward question (although the answer may not be!) about a ubiquitous textbook physics situation. I assume that the answer is probably well-known, but I asked it on both Math ...
1 vote
0 answers
119 views

Sturm-Liouville Problem: When does $w y^2$ vanish at a singular boundary point?

It is well known (e.g. Courant, Hilbert - Methods of Mathematical Physics) that solutions of the Sturm-Liouville problem on an interval $J=(a,b)$ \begin{equation} \tag{1} \left(p y' \right)' - qy \; = ...
7 votes
1 answer
767 views

Singular Sturm-Liouville problems: criterion for discrete spectrum for zero potential ($q=0$) and Hermite Polynomials

There are some known criteria for the Sturm-Liouville Problem \begin{equation} \tag{1} \frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} x}\left[p(x){\frac {\mathrm {d} y}{\mathrm {d} x}}\right]+q(x)y=-\lambda w(x)y \...
2 votes
0 answers
150 views

Limit circle/point of an ODE with finite eigenvalues

Consider the following Sturm–Liouville (SL) eigenvalue problem defined in $(-\infty,0]$ or $[0,\infty)$ or $(-\infty,+\infty)$ $$(py')'-qy=-\lambda^2wy,$$ in which $p(x)=x^2$, $w(x)=1$, and $q(x)=(x/2+...
6 votes
3 answers
917 views

Non-self adjoint Sturm-Liouville problem

I'm new to this site, but I felt the need to post when I recently came in to an ordinary differential equation/boundary value problem with this form: $(1)- \frac{d^2 y}{d x^2} + \frac{m(m+1)} {x^2(...
0 votes
1 answer
394 views

Legendre differential equation with additional term

In an application I encountered the ODE $$ \left( {x}^{2}-1 \right) {\frac {{\rm d}^{2}}{{\rm d}{x}^{2}}}f \left( x \right) +x \left( {\frac {\rm d}{{\rm d}x}}f \left( x \right) \right) \left( 8\,...
7 votes
2 answers
614 views

Does there exist a potential which realizes this strange quantum mechanical system?

I have done some courses on quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics in the past. Since I also do math, I wonder about converge issues which are usually not such a problem in physics. One of those ...