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While finding out the most probable location from wavefunction, why don't we set the derivative of probability to zero?

Physics Asked by Sai Srikar Valiveru on April 16, 2021

I was told that in order to find the most probable location of a particle we have to differentiate the probability density of a wavefunction. I don’t quite get it. If we want to find out the $x$ value for which $f(x)$ is maximum we solve $f'(x)=0$.

By similar reasoning, since the probability is given by:

$$P=int{|psi|^2dx}$$ $x$ value for maximum probability must be given by:

$$frac{dP}{dx}= |psi|^2=0$$

not: $$frac{d|psi|^2}{dx}=0$$

Where did I go wrong?

One Answer

The probability density function is what you need to differentiate, not the integral. $$P = int_D |psi|^2 dx = 1$$ for any normalized state for $D$ the domain of the problem. So you have to look at the probability density, $f(x) = |psi(x)|^2$, and find its maximum. More formally, the probability of finding the particle described by $psi(x)$ within the infinitesimal interval $(x, x+dx)$ is given by $$int_x^{x+dx} f(x)dx = |psi(x)|^2 dx $$

Finding the most probable location, amounts to finding the maximum of $f(x)$ for which you can take derivative and equate it to zero, then solve for $x$. Notice that you technically require a non-zero volume (could be small, but not zero) to actually obtain a non-zero probability. Units make sense therefore, in one dimension $$text{probability} = frac{text{probability}}{text{lenth}}cdot text{length} = |psi(x)|^2 Delta x$$

P.D. Don't confuse with the expected value of the position or, the average of the position. $$langle psi | hat{x} | psi rangle = int x|psi(x)|^2dx$$.

Correct answer by ohneVal on April 16, 2021

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