Re: Is this a common mistake in QM books?..

Cyberkatru wrote:
> I have seen this at least a couple of times now (for example on page 210 of
> Zettili's book). A 1-d basic QM problem. We have particle of energy E moving
> from minus \infinity toward the origin. The potential is zero for negative
> x and V_0 for postive x. Here lets say for definiteness that E>V_0. In any
> case, the region where the potential is positive is refered to as the
> "repulsive region". But why?

One uses this terminology if one normalizes the potential such that it
either vanishes at infinity, or such that the global minimum is at
zero energy. In these cases, the language is indeed appropriate.

Arnold Neumaier

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