Problem.

A particle of mass m is confined in an infinite potential well of length L. Suppose

the infinite potential well is perturbed by a rectangular "bump" at the center of the
well, with width a and height ( > 0), Figure 1. Calculate the first-order correction
to the energy of the nth level using time-independent nondegenerate perturbation
theory. Discuss the effect of the size of the perturbation on the first-order correction
to the energy.

a
0

L/2
L

Figure 1. The infinite potential well perturbed by a rectangular "bump" at the

center of the well.

Solution.
For unperturbed infinite potential well, Schrodinger equation is
(0) (0) (x) = E (0) (0) (x).
H
n
n
n

(1)

Solution to this well known problem are eigenfunctions and eigenvalues

r
2
nx
(0)
sin
,
n =
L
L

(2)

n2 h2
, n N.
(3)
8mL
Wave function and probability density of the first few levels for a particle in an
unperturbed infinite potential well are illustrated in Figure 2.
En(0) =

Figure 2. Wave function and probability density of the first few levels for a particle
in an unperturbed infinite potential well. Ref. [1].
Total Hamiltonian of the system will,
=H
(0) + H
0.
H

(4)

0 represent perturbation and if the respect to the Problem

In the Eq. above the H
and Figure 1, expression is


 

S L+a
L

,L
0, x 0,

2
0 =

 2
H
(5)
La L+a

,
, x

2
2
2



La
So, the space where perturbation is equal to 0 is 0,
(from 0 to rectan2


L+a
gular box) and
, L . Part of the space where is the perturbation is is
2


La L+a
,
.
2
2
In order to solve the problem, we need to find eigenvalues of the perturbed
Hamiltonian given by Eq. (5) with accuracy to the first-order correction. In timeindependent nondegenerate perturbation theory, first-order correction to the energy
is
 
D
E Z
(1)
(0)  0  (0)
0 (0) dV.
En = n H n = n(0) H
(6)
n
V

In case of our problem the first-order correction to the energy will be

En(1)

ZL
=

0 n(0) (x)dx.
n(0) (x)H

(7)

We solve this by substituting the perturbation Hamiltonian, Eq. (5), and we get
three integrals because we divided space from the well begin 0 to perturbation ,
and to the end of well L. After substitution of Eq. (5) in Eq. (7)), we get

En(1) =

La

L+a

Z2

Z2

n(0) (x) 0 n(0) (x)dx +

ZL
+

n(0) (x) n(0) (x)dx

(8)

La
2

n(0) (x) 0 n(0) (x)dx.

L+a
2

First and third integral are zero, so we only need to solve one in the middle. Using
eigenfunction of unperturbed problem, Eq. (2), we can solve integral
L+a
Z2 r

L+a

En(1)

Z2
=

n(0) (x)

La
2

n(0) (x)dx

2
nx
sin

L
L

2
nx
sin
L
L

(9)

La
2
L+a

2
=
L

Z2

nx
a

sin
dx =

L
L
2n
2



na
2 cos n sin
.
L

La
2

Complete solution of the integral in the Eq. above is given in Supplementary part
at the end of document. Using fact that cos n = (1)n , we find that the first-order
correction to energy is


a (1)n
na
(1)
En =

sin
.
(10)
L
n
L
3

The energy of the nth level to the first-order accuracy is



n2 h2
a (1)n
na
(0)
(1)
Ep = En + En =
+

sin
.
8mL
L
n
L

(11)

This is the solution to the given problem. Lets discuss the effect of the size of
the perturbation on the first-order correction to the energy.
The first-order correction to the energy (in units of ) of the nth level,for the
L
(green squares), for first 15 levels are
case when a = L5 (red circles) and a = 10
plotted in the Figure 3. On the x-axis is the ordinal number of the level and on
the y-axis is the first-order correction to the energy. The only purpose of line that
connects the points is to see the trend of change of the energy correction.

0.40

= L5
= 10L

0.35
0.30

En(1) 1

0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00

10

12

14

16

Figure 3. The infinite potential well perturbed by a rectangular "bump" at the

center of the well.
Lets consider case when a = L5 . If we look at the Eq. (10) we can see that
(1)
lim En = a
, which is the dotted red line. In other words, levels that are high
L
n

enough are just translated for the value a

(in special case when a = L, all levels
L
translated for ). We can see that the first levels is much more perturbed with
respect to the second level. That is understandable if we have in mind that the
perturbation is located at the position where the probability density of the first
level has maximum value and second level zero value.

Supplementary. I will give step-by-step solution to the integral in Eq. (9). We

have thus
L+a
Z2
2
nx
dx.
(12)
En(1) =
sin2
L
L
La
2

Using trigonometry expression 2 sin2

L+a

En(1) =

2
L

Z2

= 1 cos , we get

L+a


Z2 

2nx
2 nx
sin
dx =
1 cos
dx
L
L
L

La
2

(13)

La
2

L+a

L+a

Z2

Z2

dx

La
2

cos

2nx
dx
L

La
2

a
L
+
a


2n
2n
L+a La
L
2 sin
2
sin

L
2
2
L 2n
L
L

=
L
2n

na
2 cos n sin
L


,

sin
.
where we used trigonometric expression sin sin = 2 cos +
2
2

Refrences
[1] Fitts, D. D. PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM MECHANICS as Applied to Chemistry and Chemical Physics. Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing),
(2002).