English

Quantum mechanics of the two-dimensional circular billiard plus baffle system and half-integral angular momentum

Quantum Physics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We examine the quantum mechanical eigensolutions of the two-dimensional infinite well or quantum billiard system consisting of a circular boundary with an infinite barrier or baffle along a radius. Because of the change in boundary conditions, this system includes quantized angular momentum values corresponding to half-integral multiples of /2\hbar/2. We discuss the resulting energy eigenvalue spectrum and visualize some of the novel energy eigenstates found in this system. We also discuss the density of energy eigenvalues, N(E)N(E), comparing this system to the standard circular well. These two billiard geometries have the same area (A=πR2\pi R^2), but different perimeters (P=2πRP=2\pi R versus (2π+2)R(2\pi + 2) R), and we compare both cases to fits of N(E)N(E) which make use of purely geometric arguments involving only AA and PP. We also point out connections between the angular solutions of this system and the familiar pedagogical example of the one-dimensional infinite well plus δ\delta-function potential.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0307035,
  title  = {Quantum mechanics of the two-dimensional circular billiard plus baffle system and half-integral angular momentum},
  author = {R. W. Robinett},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0307035},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

24 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:40:03.568Z