In most textbooks on quantum mechanics, it is asserted that the bound states of a localized potential have negative energies. To stress that this view should be taken with caution, we give several examples of scalar potentials that tend to zero at infinite distance and yet possess one or several discrete positive bound states for the Schrödinger single‐particle wave equation. The consequence that usual tunneling may not occur, though it should according to a superficial view, is of interesting pedagogical value.
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© 1982 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1982
American Association of Physics Teachers
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