The Born Rule: Difference between revisions

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The Born Rule is an important result of quantum mechanics that describes the probability density of a measured quantum system. In particular, it states that the square of the wavefunction is proportional to the probability density function.  
The Born Rule is an important result of quantum mechanics that describes the probability density of a measured quantum system. In particular, it states that the square of the wavefunction is proportional to the probability density function. <br>
<math> \left | \Psi(x,t)^2 \right |=P</math>
<math> \left | \Psi(x,t)^2 \right |=P</math>



Revision as of 03:02, 5 October 2022

The Born Rule is an important result of quantum mechanics that describes the probability density of a measured quantum system. In particular, it states that the square of the wavefunction is proportional to the probability density function.
[math]\displaystyle{ \left | \Psi(x,t)^2 \right |=P }[/math]

Normalizing the Wavefunction

As the physical meaning of complex numbers is nonsense, we must normalize the wavefunction to conduct a meaningful analysis of quantum systems. At the position [math]\displaystyle{ x }[/math] and time [math]\displaystyle{ t }[/math], [math]\displaystyle{ \left | \Psi(x,t)^2 \right | }[/math] is the probability density (the physical importance is found in the square of [math]\displaystyle{ \psi }[/math]. By definition, an entire probability density function must have an area equal to one. Hence it follows that
[math]\displaystyle{ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}{ \left | \Psi(x,t)^2 \right |dx}=1 }[/math],
as a given particle in question must be located somewhere between [math]\displaystyle{ -\infty \lt x \lt \infty }[/math]