Article
Article
Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin method
Article By:
Good, Roland H., Jr. Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
Last reviewed:August 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.744300
A special technique for obtaining an approximation to the solutions of the one-dimensional time-independent Schrödinger equation, valid when the wavelength of the solution varies slowly with position; also known as the WKB method. It is named after G. Wentzel, H. A. Kramers, and L. Brillouin, who independently in 1926 contributed to its understanding in the quantum-mechanical application. It was however, studied earlier by J. Liouville (1837), Lord Rayleigh (1912), and H. Jeffreys (1923). It is also called the BWK method, and the JWKB method, the classical approximation, the quasiclassical approximation, and the phase integral method.
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