Talk:Double-well potential

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A double-well potential is an energy profile with two minima. This plain English definition differs from what is described at tedious length in the article. The fact is, double-well potentials might, potentially, be "of considerable interest" to people other than physicists. An article based on something other than a direct transcription of a badly-translated German text-book might be welcome, preferably written by someone whose first language is English. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.120.252.133 (talk) 11:59, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

I concur, however I think that this article is mainly discussing the concept in the context of physics and in particular, quantum physics (connections can be made to classical physics, though the double well is more interesting in quantum due to the ability of a particle to tunnel between the wells). As it currently stands, this article dives into a niche application of 'double well.' While the quantum field theory connection is interesting, it should not form the basis of the topic. I think introducing the concept of a double well with a simpler example from basic quantum mechanics will serve the article better, using a 1-dimensional symmetric potential which is one value outside the wells, and another lower value inside the wells. For a symmetric potential, the Hamiltonian commutes with the so-called parity operator P which acts on functions like:

P f(x) = f(-x)

The energy eigenfunctions of the system are thus in the symmetric case found to be functions of definite parity: they are even or odd functions. Furthermore, there is an interesting consideration that can be made by forming wavepackets out of the eigenfunctions that are localized in one well or the other at time=0. Evolving these wavepackets in time one can show they oscillate back and forth between the wells, which is evocative of an 'electron' shared by two 'atoms' such as in the H⁺₂ molecule. I want a bear as a pet (talk) 15:53, 15 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

When I checked this page today it seems the math display is not working. Is this a problem on my side or can anyone confirm this? DiceTheRoller (talk) 16:46, 20 June 2023 (UTC)Reply