eigenstate

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe Proto-Germanic *aiganą Proto-Germanic *aiganaz Proto-West Germanic *aigan Old High German eigan Middle High German eigen German eigenbor. English eigen- Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Italic *status Latin statuslbor. Old French estatbor. Middle English stat English state English eigenstate From eigen- + state.

1. A dynamic quantum mechanical state whose wave function is an eigenvector that corresponds to a physical quantity.

   “Otherwise, in the case of pure physisorption, adatoms and very small adclusters would not be observed with the STM because the probability for the sharp eigenstates of the adparticles to lie within the 10 meV energy window ( given by the bias voltage ) would be considerably small.”

   “In all quantum theories, basis vectors (which are typically eigenstates) are abstractions of the unit basis vectors along the 3D axes. A general state is a vector sum of certain amounts of each basis vector state.”