From a video lecture on quantum mechanics at MIT OCW I found that you didn't need to know Schrödinger's equation to know the momentum operator which is ℏi∂∂x. This can be derived from a 'simple' wave function of the type
\psi = Ae^{i(\boldsymbol{\mathbf{k}}\cdot \boldsymbol{\mathbf{r}}- \omega t )} Where we require eigenvalues for \mathcal{\hat{p}} to be \hbar k My questions are:
- I understand the complex notation is for convenience. Since it's a complex exponential it'll give us a real and imaginary wave. Does the imaginary part have any physical significance? Are we to interpret this as two waves in superposition in the complex plane?
- As we derive the expression for \mathcal{\hat{p}} for this specific function, how does it guarantee that this is indeed the \mathcal{\hat{p}} for every other arbitrary wave function? Can it be derived besides using the wave function I mentioned?
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