I am trying to understand the concept of group velocity of a free particle wave packet: Ψ(x,t)=1√2π∫∞−∞ϕ(k)eikxe−iℏk2t2mdk.
Where ω(k)=ℏk22m. Assuming that ϕ(k) is narrowly peaked about some particular value k0 we can Taylor expand ω(k) about k0 to get ω(k)=ℏk02m+ℏk0m(k−k0)+ℏ2m(k−k0)2. Then after defining variable κ:=k−k0 we get Ψ(x,t)≈1√2πe−iℏk20t2meiℏk20tm∫∞−∞ϕ(κ+k0)ei(κ+k0)(x−ℏk0tm)dk.
This integral is the superposition of waves of the form ei(κ+k0)(x−ℏk0tm). However notice that each of these waves have the same speed ℏk0m. Then in terms of the energy vgroup=dω(k0)dk=ℏk0m=√2E0m. Hence for stationary state Ψk0 we have that vgroup=2vphase.
Apparently we can then evaluate the group velocity for each k, hence vgroup=dω(k)dk.
Question: I understand the above calculation. But qualitatively I don't understand how the group velocity can be a function of k as opposed to just a single value (independent of k) which describes how fast the envelope propagates? I know that each stationary state has it's own phase velocity but I thought that superimposing these waves of different speeds produces an envelope which travels at a single velocity vgroup?
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