Green's functions in quantum mechanics courses
William J. Herrera, Herbert Vinck-Posada, Shirley Gómez Páez · American Journal of Physics · 2022
The use of Green's functions is valuable when solving problems in electrodynamics, solid-state physics, and many-body physics. However, its role in quantum mechanics is often limited to the context of scattering by a central force. This work shows how Green's functions can be used in other examples in quantum mechanics courses. In particular, we introduce time-independent Green's functions and the Dyson equation to solve problems with an external potential. We calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients of scattering by a Dirac delta barrier and the energy levels and local density of states of the infinite square well potential.