文章基本信息

标题：Students’ difficulties with partial differential equations in quantum mechanics
其他标题：Students’ difficulties with partial differential equations in quantum mechanics
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作者：Tao Tu ; Chuan-Feng Li ; Zong-Quan Zhou 等
期刊名称：Physical Review Physics Education Research
电子版ISSN：2469-9896
出版年度：2020
卷号：16
期号：2
页码：020163
DOI：10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020163
出版社：American Physical Society
摘要：Upper-division physics students solve partial differential equations in various contexts in quantum mechanics courses. Separation of variables is a standard technique to solve these equations. We investigated students’ solutions to midterm exam questions and utilized think-aloud interviews. We also applied a framework that organizes students’ problem-solving process into four stages: activate, construct, execute, and reflect. Here we focused on students’ problem-solving process for two typical problems in the context of quantum mechanics: an energy eigenfunction problem in two spatial dimensions and a time evolution problem in one spatial dimension. We found that the students encountered various difficulties when they used the separation of variables technique to solve these partial differential equations. Common difficulties included recognizing when separation of variables is the appropriate method, deriving the correct separated equations from the original equation, deciding the signs of the separation constants, justifying when using the summation form of the wave function, and using an effective reflecting tool for their final solutions. In addition, we observed qualitatively and quantitatively different errors in students’ solutions to the two problems. Finally, we discussed the possible implications of our findings for instruction.