[Physics] Change of variable in harmonic oscillator time independent Schrodinger equation

harmonic-oscillatorhomework-and-exercisesschroedinger equation

I was revising the harmonic oscillator for my intro to quantum course and realised I'd sort of accepted a change of variable result without actually being able to get to it. It says:

The stationary state Schrodinger equation of energy $E$ is

$$-\frac{\hbar^{2}}{2m}\frac{d^{2}\psi}{dx^{2}}+\frac{1}{2}m\omega^{2}x^{2}\psi=E\psi\tag{5.2}$$

The first thing to do is to redefine variables so as to remove the various physical constants:

$$\epsilon=\frac{2E}{\hbar\omega}, \xi=\sqrt{\frac{m\omega}{\hbar}}x$$

so that (5.2) becomes

$$-\frac{d^{2}\chi}{d\xi^{2}}+\xi^{2}\chi=\epsilon\chi$$ where $$\psi(x)=\chi(\xi)=\chi(\sqrt{\frac{m\omega}{\hbar}}x).$$

So, I've tried working with the algebra but can't seem to get to this. I'm probably missing something really obvious, but it's getting quite frustrating! Can anyone help?

Best Answer

You should show your work, but my guess is that you have to notice the change of variables:

$$\frac{d\chi}{dx}=\frac{d\chi}{d\xi}\frac{d\xi}{dx}$$

You need to do this a second time (using the derivate of a product.

See if you can continue from there.

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