Degenerate Energy States
Degenerate Energy States
The probability function is used to determine the energy of a system, which is based on the quantum numbers and , and varies as +. The plot shows how the probability function changes with different values of and . The total energy of the system is shown in the bottom-left corner. Different values of and can be chosen to give the same values of . When different sets of quantum numbers lead to the same energy state, the system is said to be degenerate.
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