Variational Method

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. In quantum mechanics, the variational method is one way of finding approximations to the lowest energy eigenstate or ground state, and some excited states. The basis for this method is the variational principle. The method consists in choosing a "trial wavefunction" depending one or more parameters, and finding the values of these parameters for which the expectation value of the energy is the lowest possible. The wavefunction obtained by fixing the parameters to such values is then an approximation to the ground state wavefunction, and the expectation value of the energy in that state is an upper bound to the ground state energy.

Pagina's: 96, Paperback, Betascript Publishers