[Physics] Orthogonality of summed wave functions

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Problem. I know that the two wave functions $\Psi_1$ and $\Psi_2$ are all normalized and orthogonal. I now want to prove that this implies that $\Psi_3=\Psi_1+\Psi_2$ is orthogonal to $\Psi_4=\Psi_1-\Psi_2$.

My naive solution. From the premises, we know that
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Psi_1^*\Psi_1 dx=\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Psi_2^*\Psi_2 dx=1$$
and
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Psi_1^*\Psi_2 dx=\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Psi_2^*\Psi_1 dx=0$$

We also have $(z_1+z_2)^*=z_1^*+z_2^*$

$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \Psi_3^*\Psi_4 dx = \int_{-\infty}^\infty (\Psi_1+\Psi_2)^*(\Psi_1-\Psi_2)dx \\
=\int_{-\infty}^\infty(\Psi_1^*+\Psi_2^*)(\Psi_1-\Psi_2)dx\\
=\int_{-\infty}^\infty(\Psi_1^*\Psi_1-\Psi_1^*\Psi_2+\Psi_2^*\Psi_1-\Psi_2^*\Psi_2)dx\\
=1-0+0-1=0\,,$$

which is equivalent with what we wanted to prove. Is this a legitimate proof? Is there any simpler way to do this? I am afraid I still haven't grasped how wave functions behave mathematically, so I may have missed somethings very obvious here.

Edit: The solution manual somehow uses normalization factors for $\Psi_3$ and $\Psi_4$. How are these factors when you don't actually know the exact functions? And how does this relate to the concept of orthogonality?

Best Answer

This problem could be done more simply through the application of linear algebra. You want to prove that

$$\langle \psi_1 - \psi_2 | \psi_1 + \psi_2 \rangle = 0$$

The inner product is analogous to the dot product of linear algebra, and it is distributive. Distributing, we find that

$$\begin{aligned} \langle \psi_1 - \psi_2 | \psi_1 + \psi_2 \rangle &= \langle \psi_1 - \psi_2 | \psi_1 \rangle + \langle \psi_1 - \psi_2 | \psi_2 \rangle \\ &= \langle \psi_1 | \psi_1 \rangle - \langle \psi_2 | \psi_1 \rangle + \langle \psi_1 | \psi_2 \rangle - \langle \psi_2 | \psi_2 \rangle \end{aligned} $$

Because $\psi_1$ and $\psi_2$ are orthogonal and normalized, you know $\langle \psi_i | \psi_j \rangle = \delta_{i j}$. Substituting, the above expression evaluates to $1 - 0 + 0 - 1 = 0$, demonstrating that the two vectors are indeed orthogonal.

Your approach - using the integrals - was also valid, and fundamentally similar to mine here. However, by noting that the relation you used ($\langle \psi_1 | \psi_2 \rangle = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \! \psi_1^* \psi_2 \, \mathrm{d}x$) satisfied the definition of an inner product, the integrals can be omitted.

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