A-16 (One Dimensional Potential-1)

1. A particle of mass m and energy E, moving in the positive x direction, is incident on a

step potential at x = 0, as indicated in the figure. The height of the potential is V0. where
1
V0 > E. At x = x0, where x0 > 0, the probability of finding the electron is times the
e
2m V0  E 
probability of finding it at x = 0. If a = 2
. The value of x0 is

2 1 1 1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
a a 2a 4a

2. The state of a system is given by

| | 1  2 | 2  3| 3

Where | 1 ,| 2 and | 3 form an orthonormal set. The probability of finding the system in
the state | 2 is _________. (Give your answer upto two decimal places)

3. For the parity operator P, which of the following statements is NOT true?

(a) P+ = P (b) P2 = - P (c) P2 = 1 (d) P+ = P-1

4. If x and p are the x components of the position and the momentum operators of a
particle respectively, the commutator [x2, p2] is

(a) i (xp – px) (b) 2 i (xp – px) (c) i (xp + px) (d) 2 i (xp + px)

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
5. Which of the following operators is Hermitian?

d d2 d2 d3
(a) (b) (c) i (d)
dx dx 2 dx 2 dx3

6. Let L and p be the angular and linear momentum operators, respectively, for a a
particle. The commutator Lx , p y gives

(a) i pz (b) 0 (c) i px (d) i pz

7. A proton is confined to a cubic box, whose sides have length 10 -12 m. What is the
minimum kinetic energy of the proton? The mass of proton is 1.67x10 -27 kg and Planck's
constant is 6.63 × 10-34 Js.

(a) 1.1 × 10-17 J (b) 3.3 × 10-17 J (c) 9.9 × 10-17 J (d) 6.6 × 10-17 J

Common Data for Questions 8 - 9

The wavefunction of particle moving in free space is given by,   eikx  2eikx

8. The energy of the particle is

5 2k 2 3 2k 2 2
k2 2
k2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2m 4m 2m m

9. The probability current density for the real part of the wavefunction is
k k
(a) 1 (6) (c) (d) 0
m 2m

10. A particle of mass m is confined in a two dimensional square well potential of

dimension a. This potential V(x, y) is given by

V(x, y) = 0 , for –a < x < a and -a < y < a

= , elsewhere.

The energy of the first excited state for this particle is given by,

2 2
2 2 2 5 2 2 4 2 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
ma 2 ma 2 8ma 2 ma 2

11. If Lx, Ly and Lz are respectively the x, y and z components of angular momentum
operator L. The commutator [Lx Ly, Lz] is equal to.

(a) i  L2x  L2y  (b) 2i Lz (c) i  L2x  L2y  (d) 0

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
12. An electron with energy E is incident from left on a potential barrier, given by

V(x) = 0 , for x < 0

= V0 , for x > 0

as shown in the figure. For E < V0, the space part of the wavefunction for x > 0 is of the
form

(a) eax (b) e-ax (c) eiax (d) e-iax

13. Which of the following is an allowed wavefunction for a particle in a bound state? N is a
constant and  ,   0 .

e  ar
(a)   N (b)   N 1  e  ar 
r3

non  zero cons tan t if r  R

(c)   Ne ax e 
 x  y z 
2 2 2

(d)   
 0 if r  R

14. If Li are the components of the angular momentum operator L then the operator
i 1,2,3  L, Li  equals

(a) L (b) 2 L (c) 3 L (d) - L

15. The ratio of the energy of the first excited state El, to that of the ground state E0, to that
of a particle in a three-dimensional rectangular box of side L, L and, L/2 is

(a) 3: 2 (b) 2:1 (c) 4:1 (d) 4:3

16. Let x and p denote, respectively, the coordinate and momentum operators satisfying the
canonical commutation relation [x , p] = i in natural units (ħ = 1). Then the commutator
[x, pe-p] is

(a) i (l – p) e-p (b) i(l – p2)e-p (c) i(l – e-p) (d) ipe-p

17. Suppose Hamiltonian of a conservative system in classical mechanics is H =  xp , where

 is a constant and x and p are the position and momentum respectively. The
corresponding Hamiltonian in quantum mechanics, in the coordinate representation, is

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
    i  
(a) i   x   (b) i   x  
1 1
(c) i  x (d)  x
 x 2   x 2  x 2 x

18. If   x   A exp   x 4  is the eigenfunction of a one dimensional Hamiltonian with

eigenvalue E = 0, the potential V(x) (in units where to = 2m = 1) is

(a) 12x2 (b) 16x6 (c) 16x6 + 12x2 (d) 16x6 – 12x2

19. Consider a particle in a one dimensional potential that satisfies V(x) = V(-x). Let | 0
and | 1 denote the ground and the first excited states, respectively, and let
|  0 | 0  1 | 1 be a normalized state with  0 and 1 being real constants. The
expectation value x of the position operator x in the state | is given by

(a)  02  0 | x | 0  12  1 | x | 1 (b)  01   0 | x | 1   1 | x | 0 

(c)  02  12 (d) 201

 1 
20. The wavefunction of a particle is given by    0  i1  , where 0 and 1 are the
 2 
normalized eigenfunctions with energies E0 and E1 corresponding to the ground state
and first excited state, respectively. The expectation value of the Hamiltonian in the
state  is

E0 E0 E0  2 E1 E0  2 E1
(a)  E1 (b)  E1 (c) (d)
2 2 3 3

1 1 1
21. The state     1   1   2 is a linear combination of three orthonormal
6 2 3
eigenstates of the operator A, corresponding to eigenvalues -1, 1 and 2. What is the
expectation value of A for this state?

2 7 4
(a) (b) (c) 1 (d)
3 6 3

22. A particle is confined in a one-dimensional box of length l. Its wave function is given by

 2 x 
 sin   for 0  x  l
  x   l  l 
 0 for l  x  0


The expectation values of the x-component of momentum is

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
 l
(a) 1 (b) 0.5 (c) (d) zero
2

23. The dispersion law for a certain type of wave motion is    c2 k 2  m2  where  is the
1/2

angular frequency. k is the magnitude of the propagation vector and c and m are
constants. The group velocity of these waves approaches

(a) infinity as k  0 and c as k   (b) c as k  0 and zero as k  

(c) zero as k  0 and infinity as k   (d) zero as k  0 and c as k  

24. If u1 and u2 are eigenstates corresponding to energy eigenvalues E1 and E2 (E1  E2) of a
Hamiltonian, then in the state space

(a) u1 and u2 are parallel (b) u1 and u2 are orthogonal

E1
(c) u1 and u2 are at an angle  such that cos  =
E2

(d) u1 and u2 are degenerate states

25. A particle of mass m is restricted to move in one-dimension between two points such
that 0  x  a If the potential function is such that

V  x   x  0 and x  a
0 0 xa

the particle will have discrete energy spectrum as

2 2
3 2 2
2 
n  0,1, 2 …. n  1 n  0,1, 2.....
2
(a) En  n 2
(b) En 
4ma 2 2ma

2 2
32 2 2
2 
n  1
2
(c) En  n  0,1, 2..... (d) En  .n n  0,1, 2.....
2ma 2 ma 2

26. If an operator satisfies the equation Ô   , then measurement of Ô will give

(a) a in the state  (b) the value =  Ô d 3 x in the state 

(c) any value of several values greater than a (d) zero

27. The Hamiltonian H of a system having two states  1 , and  2 is such that H 1  iE 2 and
H 2  iE 1 . The lowest energy of the system corresponds to the state

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
 1 1 1 1
(a)  2  i 1  (b)  2  1  (c)  2  i 1  (d)  2  1 
2 2 2 2

1 1
28. If  1 , 2 are eigenvectors of an operator  with eigenvalues as then - respectively,
2 2
then a 1  b 2 (where a, b are complex numbers) is an

a b
(a) eigenvector of  with eigenvalue (b) eigenvector of  with
2
eigenvalue zero

ab
(c) eigenvector of  2 with eigenvalue (d) eigenvector of  2 with
4
1
eigenvalue
4

29. An electron is confined to a box of length L. If the length of the box charges to 2L, how
would the uncertainty of momentum charge?

(a) Uncertainty of momentum will be twice

(b) Uncertainty of momentum will be half

(c) Uncertainty of momentum will be one fourth

(d) Uncertainty of momentum will be four times

30. A particle is in the normalized state  which is a superposition of the energy Eigen
states Eo  20ev and E1  40ev .The average value of energy of the particle in the state
 is 30 eV. The state  is given by

1 3 1 2
(a) Eo  20ev  E1  40ev (b) Eo  20ev  E1  40ev
2 2 3 3

1 3 1 1
(c) Eo  20ev  E1  40ev (d) Eo  20ev  E1  40ev
2 4 2 2

31. A particle of mass m is confined in the ground state of a one-dimensional box,

extending from x = - L to x = L. The wave function of the particle in this state is
x 
 ( x)  a cos   . The value of a is
 2L 

1 2 3 2
(a) (b) (c) (d)
L L L L

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
32. A particle of mass m is confined in two dimension infinite square well potential of side
25 2 2
a. The energy of particle a given state is E  .The state is
ma 2

(a) 4 fold degenerate (b) 3 fold degenerate (c) 2 fold degenerate (d)
non degenerate .

 ia 2 
33. If a wave function  ( x) satisfies the following relation x ( x)     px ( x) (‘a’ is real
 
positive quantity), then  ( x) will be of the form.
2 2
(a)  0e  x / 2 (b)  0e x /2 (c)  0e x /2 (d)  0e x /2

34. A particle has the wave function,  (r )  Ne ar .Where, N is the normalization constant
and  is known real parameter. The expectation value of x-component of position is

3 3 1
(a) (b) (c) (d) 0
2  2

35. A Hermitian operator Ô has two normalised eigenstates 1 and 2 with eigenvalues 1
and 2, respectively. The two state's   cos 1  sin  2 and   cos  1  sin  2 are
such that  Oˆ   7 / 4 and  |  0 . Which of the following are possible values of 
and  ?

   
(a)    and   (b)   and  
6 3 6 3

   
(c)    and   (d)   and   
4 4 3 6

36. A particle is moving in one dimension under a potential V ( x ) such that, for large
positive values of x,V ( x)  kx  , where k > 0 and   1 . If the wavefunction in this region
has the form  ( x) exp( x ) , which of the following is true ?

 2
(a)   1 (b)    (c)   2  2 (d)  
2 2

37. The ground state energy of a particle of mass m in a three-dimension cubical box of side
is not zero but 3 2 / 8m 2 . This is because

(a) the ground state has no nodes in the interior of the box.

(b) this is the most convenient choice of the zero level of potential energy

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537
 (c) position and momentum cannot be exactly determined simultaneous

(d) the potential at the boundaries is not really infinite, but just very large

38. A one-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator is in its ground state

1/4
 m   m x2 /2
 0 ( x)    e
 h 

Two experiments,[A] and [B], are performed on the system. In [A], the frequency  of
the oscillator is suddenly doubled, while in [B] the frequency w is suddenly halved. If
Pa and Pb denote the probability in each case that the system is found in its new ground
state immediately after the frequency change, which of the following is true?

(a) PA  2PB (b) PA  2 PB (c) 2 PA  PB (d) PA  PB

39. The probability function for a variable x which assumes only positive values is

 x
f ( x)  x exp   
 

where  >0. The ratio x xˆ ,where x̂ is the most probable value and x is the mean
value of the variable x, is

1  1
(a) 2 (b) (c) (d) 1
1  

40. A particle moving in one dimension has the un-normalised wave function

 x2 
 ( x)  x exp  2 
  

where  is a real constant. The expectation value of its momentum is p =

 x2  2 2
(a) exp   2  (b) exp  1 (c) 2 (d) Zero
     2 2

01, Murtikala Colony, Near Bhandari Hospital, Gopalpura Mode, Jaipur :

8769828844, 9571489537