Plateaux of probability for the expanded quantum infinite well

Abstract

If the standard 1D quantum infinite potential well initially in its ground state suffers a sudden expansion, it turns out that in the evolution of the system they may appear plateaux of probability for some fractional times, as noticed by C. Aslangul in 2008. We introduce a mathematical framework to explain this phenomenon. Remarkably, the characterization of these plateaux depends on nontrivial number theoretical considerations.