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Natural frequency, measured in terms of eigenfrequency, is the rate at which an oscillatory system tends to oscillate in the absence of disturbance. A foundational example pertains to simple harmonic oscillators, such as an idealized spring with no energy loss wherein the system exhibits constant-amplitude oscillations with a constant frequency.
The shape of a standing wave in a string fixed at its boundaries is an example of an eigenfunction of a differential operator. The admissible eigenvalues are governed by the length of the string and determine the frequency of oscillation.
Such a standing wave may be formed when a wave is transmitted into one end of a transmission line and is reflected from the other end by an impedance mismatch, i.e., discontinuity, such as an open circuit or a short. [8] The failure of the line to transfer power at the standing wave frequency will usually result in attenuation distortion.
The oscillation frequency of the standing wave, multiplied by the Planck constant, is the energy of the state according to the Planck–Einstein relation. Stationary states are quantum states that are solutions to the time-independent Schrödinger equation : H ^ | Ψ = E Ψ | Ψ , {\displaystyle {\hat {H}}|\Psi \rangle =E_{\Psi }|\Psi \rangle ...
The wave equation is a second-order linear partial differential equation for the description of waves or standing wave fields such as mechanical waves (e.g. water waves, sound waves and seismic waves) or electromagnetic waves (including light waves). It arises in fields like acoustics, electromagnetism, and fluid dynamics.
In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction) is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters ψ and Ψ (lower-case and capital psi, respectively). Wave functions are complex-valued. For example, a wave function might assign a complex ...
When the equation is applied to waves, k is known as the wave number. The Helmholtz equation has a variety of applications in physics and other sciences, including the wave equation, the diffusion equation, and the Schrödinger equation for a free particle. In optics, the Helmholtz equation is the wave equation for the electric field. [1] The ...
However, even in this case the total wave function is dependent on time as explained in the section on linearity below. In the language of linear algebra, this equation is an eigenvalue equation. Therefore, the wave function is an eigenfunction of the Hamiltonian operator with corresponding eigenvalue(s) .