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In quantum mechanics, the expectation value is the probabilistic expected value of the result (measurement) of an experiment. It can be thought of as an average of all the possible outcomes of a measurement as weighted by their likelihood, and as such it is not the most probable value of a measurement; indeed the expectation value may have zero probability of occurring (e.g. measurements which ...
The Ehrenfest theorem, named after Austrian theoretical physicist Paul Ehrenfest, relates the time derivative of the expectation values of the position and momentum operators x and p to the expectation value of the force = ′ on a massive particle moving in a scalar potential (), [1]
Re-arranging the equation leads to =, where the energy factor E is a scalar value, the energy the particle has and the value that is measured. The partial derivative is a linear operator so this expression is the operator for energy: E ^ = i ℏ ∂ ∂ t . {\displaystyle {\hat {E}}=i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial t}}.}
The expected values of the powers of X are called the moments of X; the moments about the mean of X are expected values of powers of X − E[X]. The moments of some random variables can be used to specify their distributions, via their moment generating functions.
One simple way to compare classical to quantum mechanics is to consider the time-evolution of the expected position and expected momentum, which can then be compared to the time-evolution of the ordinary position and momentum in classical mechanics. [25]: 302 The quantum expectation values satisfy the Ehrenfest theorem.
This proof of the Hellmann–Feynman theorem requires that the wave function be an eigenfunction of the Hamiltonian under consideration; however, it is also possible to prove more generally that the theorem holds for non-eigenfunction wave functions which are stationary (partial derivative is zero) for all relevant variables (such as orbital rotations).
The expectation value of the total Hamiltonian H (including the term V ee) in the state described by ψ 0 will be an upper bound for its ground state energy. V ee is −5E 1 /2 = 34 eV, so H is 8E 1 − 5E 1 /2 = −75 eV. A tighter upper bound can be found by using a better trial wavefunction with 'tunable' parameters.
The Feynman diagram expansion may be obtained also from the Feynman path integral formulation. [3] The time-ordered vacuum expectation values of polynomials in φ, known as the n-particle Green's functions, are constructed by integrating over all possible fields, normalized by the vacuum expectation value with no external fields,