The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that describes the wave function or state function of a quantum-mechanical system.^{[4] []} It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of the subject. The equation is named after Erwin Schrödinger, who postulated the equation in 1925, and published it in 1926, forming the basis for the work that resulted in his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.^[5][6]

The concept of a wave function is a fundamental postulate of quantum mechanics; the wave function defines the state of the system at each spatial position, and time. Using these postulates, Schrödinger's equation can be derived from the fact that the time-evolution operator must be unitary, and must therefore be generated by the exponential of a self-adjoint operator, which is the quantum Hamiltonian. This derivation is explained below.

In the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the wave function is the most complete description that can be given of a physical system. Solutions to Schrödinger's equation describe not only molecular, atomic, and subatomic systems, but also macroscopic systems, possibly even the whole universe.^{[7] []} Schrödinger's equation is central to all applications of quantum mechanics, including quantum field theory, which combines special relativity with quantum mechanics. Theories of quantum gravity, such as string theory, also do not modify Schrödinger's equation.

The Schrödinger equation is not the only way to study quantum mechanical systems and make predictions. The other formulations of quantum mechanics include matrix mechanics, introduced by Werner Heisenberg, and the path integral formulation, developed chiefly by Richard Feynman. Paul Dirac incorporated matrix mechanics and the Schrödinger equation into a single formulation.

The form of the Schrödinger equation depends on the physical situation (see below for special cases). The most general form is the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE), which gives a description of a system evolving with time:^{[8] []}

This is also a diffusion equation, but unlike the heat equation, this one is also a wave equation given the imaginary unit present in the transient term.

The term "Schrödinger equation" can refer to both the general equation, or the specific nonrelativistic version. The general equation is indeed quite general, used throughout quantum mechanics, for everything from the Dirac equation to quantum field theory, by plugging in diverse expressions for the Hamiltonian. The specific nonrelativistic version is a strictly classical approximation to reality and yields accurate results in many situations, but only to a certain extent (see relativistic quantum mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory).

To apply the Schrödinger equation, write down the Hamiltonian for the system, accounting for the kinetic and potential energies of the particles constituting the system, then insert it into the Schrödinger equation. The resulting partial differential equation is solved for the wave function, which contains information about the system.

The time-dependent Schrödinger equation described above predicts that wave functions can form standing waves, called stationary states.^[3] These states are particularly important as their individual study later simplifies the task of solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for any state. Stationary states can also be described by a simpler form of the Schrödinger equation, the time-independent Schrödinger equation (TISE).

As before, the most common manifestation is the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation for a single particle moving in an electric field (but not a magnetic field):

The time-independent Schrödinger equation is discussed further below.

And so, substituting the above expansion into (1) thus yields

The Schrödinger equation predicts that if certain properties of a system are measured, the result may be quantized, meaning that only specific discrete values can occur. One example is energy quantization: the energy of an electron in an atom is always one of the quantized energy levels, a fact discovered via atomic spectroscopy. (Energy quantization is discussed below.) Another example is quantization of angular momentum. This was an assumption in the earlier Bohr model of the atom, but it is a prediction of the Schrödinger equation.

Another result of the Schrödinger equation is that not every measurement gives a quantized result in quantum mechanics. For example, position, momentum, time, and (in some situations) energy can have any value across a continuous range.^{[11] []}

In classical physics, when a ball is rolled slowly up a large hill, it will come to a stop and roll back, because it doesn't have enough energy to get over the top of the hill to the other side. However, the Schrödinger equation predicts that there is a small probability that the ball will get to the other side of the hill, even if it has too little energy to reach the top. This is called quantum tunneling. It is related to the distribution of energy: although the ball's assumed position seems to be on one side of the hill, there is a chance of finding it on the other side.

The nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation is a type of partial differential equation called a wave equation. Therefore, it is often said particles can exhibit behavior usually attributed to waves. In some modern interpretations this description is reversed – the quantum state, i.e. wave, is the only genuine physical reality, and under the appropriate conditions it can show features of particle-like behavior. However, Ballentine^{[12] []} shows that such an interpretation has problems. Ballentine points out that whilst it is arguable to associate a physical wave with a single particle, there is still only one Schrödinger wave equation for many particles. He points out:

Two-slit diffraction is a famous example of the strange behaviors that waves regularly display, that are not intuitively associated with particles. The overlapping waves from the two slits cancel each other out in some locations, and reinforce each other in other locations, causing a complex pattern to emerge. Intuitively, one would not expect this pattern from firing a single particle at the slits, because the particle should pass through one slit or the other, not a complex overlap of both.

However, since the Schrödinger equation is a wave equation, a single particle fired through a double-slit does show this same pattern (figure on right). The experiment must be repeated many times for the complex pattern to emerge. Although this is counterintuitive, the prediction is correct; in particular, electron diffraction and neutron diffraction are well understood and widely used in science and engineering.

Related to diffraction, particles also display superposition and interference.

The superposition property allows the particle to be in a quantum superposition of two or more quantum states at the same time. However, a "quantum state" in quantum mechanics means the probability that a system will be, for example at a position x, not that the system will actually be at position x. It does not imply that the particle itself may be in two classical states at once. Indeed, quantum mechanics is generally unable to assign values for properties prior to measurement at all.

In classical mechanics, a particle has, at every moment, an exact position and an exact momentum. These values change deterministically as the particle moves according to Newton's laws. Under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, particles do not have exactly determined properties, and when they are measured, the result is randomly drawn from a probability distribution. The Schrödinger equation predicts what the probability distributions are, but fundamentally cannot predict the exact result of each measurement.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is one statement of the inherent measurement uncertainty in quantum mechanics. It states that the more precisely a particle's position is known, the less precisely its momentum is known, and vice versa.

The Schrödinger equation describes the (deterministic) evolution of the wave function of a particle. However, even if the wave function is known exactly, the result of a specific measurement on the wave function is uncertain.

The Schrödinger equation provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. However, the Schrödinger equation does not directly say what, exactly, the wave function is. Interpretations of quantum mechanics address questions such as what the relation is between the wave function, the underlying reality, and the results of experimental measurements.

An important aspect is the relationship between the Schrödinger equation and wave function collapse. In the oldest Copenhagen interpretation, particles follow the Schrödinger equation except during wave function collapse, during which they behave entirely differently. The advent of quantum decoherence theory allowed alternative approaches (such as the Everett many-worlds interpretation and consistent histories), wherein the Schrödinger equation is always satisfied, and wave function collapse should be explained as a consequence of the Schrödinger equation.

In 1952, Erwin Schrödinger gave a lecture during which he commented,

David Deutsch regarded this as the earliest known reference to a many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, an interpretation generally credited to Hugh Everett III,^[14] while Jeffrey A. Barrett took the more modest position that it indicates a "similarity in ... general views" between Schrödinger and Everett.^[15]

According to de Broglie the electron is described by a wave and a whole number of wavelengths must fit along the circumference of the electron's orbit:

In 1921, prior to de Broglie, Arthur C. Lunn at the University of Chicago had used the same argument based on the completion of the relativistic energy–momentum 4-vector to derive what we now call the de Broglie relation.^[17] Unlike de Broglie, Lunn went on to formulate the differential equation now known as the Schrödinger equation, and solve for its energy eigenvalues for the hydrogen atom. Unfortunately the paper was rejected by the Physical Review, as recounted by Kamen.^[18]

Following up on de Broglie's ideas, physicist Peter Debye made an offhand comment that if particles behaved as waves, they should satisfy some sort of wave equation. Inspired by Debye's remark, Schrödinger decided to find a proper 3-dimensional wave equation for the electron. He was guided by William R. Hamilton's analogy between mechanics and optics, encoded in the observation that the zero-wavelength limit of optics resembles a mechanical system—the trajectories of light rays become sharp tracks that obey Fermat's principle, an analog of the principle of least action.^[19] A modern version of his reasoning is reproduced below. The equation he found is:^[20]

However, by that time, Arnold Sommerfeld had refined the Bohr model with relativistic corrections.^[21][22] Schrödinger used the relativistic energy momentum relation to find what is now known as the Klein–Gordon equation in a Coulomb potential (in natural units):

He found the standing waves of this relativistic equation, but the relativistic corrections disagreed with Sommerfeld's formula. Discouraged, he put away his calculations and secluded himself in an isolated mountain cabin in December 1925.^[23]

This 1926 paper was enthusiastically endorsed by Einstein, who saw the matter-waves as an intuitive depiction of nature, as opposed to Heisenberg's matrix mechanics, which he considered overly formal.^[27]

Louis de Broglie in his later years proposed a real valued wave function connected to the complex wave function by a proportionality constant and developed the De Broglie–Bohm theory.

The Schrödinger equation is a variation on the diffusion equation where the diffusion constant is imaginary. A spike of heat will decay in amplitude and spread out; however, because the imaginary i is the generator of rotations in the complex plane, a spike in the amplitude of a matter wave will also rotate in the complex plane over time. The solutions are therefore functions which describe wave-like motions. Wave equations in physics can normally be derived from other physical laws – the wave equation for mechanical vibrations on strings and in matter can be derived from Newton's laws, where the wave function represents the displacement of matter, and electromagnetic waves from Maxwell's equations, where the wave functions are electric and magnetic fields. The basis for Schrödinger's equation, on the other hand, is the energy of the system and a separate postulate of quantum mechanics: the wave function is a description of the system.^[30] The Schrödinger equation is therefore a new concept in itself; as Feynman put it:

The foundation of the equation is structured to be a linear differential equation based on classical energy conservation, and consistent with the De Broglie relations. The solution is the wave function ψ, which contains all the information that can be known about the system. In the Copenhagen interpretation, the modulus of ψ is related to the probability the particles are in some spatial configuration at some instant of time. Solving the equation for ψ can be used to predict how the particles will behave under the influence of the specified potential and with each other.

The Schrödinger equation was developed principally from the De Broglie hypothesis, a wave equation that would describe particles,^[32] and can be constructed as shown informally in the following sections.^[33] For a more rigorous description of Schrödinger's equation, see also Resnick et al.^[34]

For three dimensions, the position vector r and momentum vector p must be used:

This formalism can be extended to any fixed number of particles: the total energy of the system is then the total kinetic energies of the particles, plus the total potential energy, again the Hamiltonian. However, there can be interactions between the particles (an N-body problem), so the potential energy V can change as the spatial configuration of particles changes, and possibly with time. The potential energy, in general, is not the sum of the separate potential energies for each particle, it is a function of all the spatial positions of the particles. Explicitly:

The simplest wave function is a plane wave of the form:

while in three dimensions, wavelength λ is related to the magnitude of the wavevector k:

Schrödinger's insight, late in 1925, was to express the phase of a plane wave as a complex phase factor using these relations:

and to realize that the first order partial derivatives with respect to space were

Taking partial derivatives with respect to time gives

Another postulate of quantum mechanics is that all observables are represented by linear Hermitian operators which act on the wave function, and the eigenvalues of the operator are the values the observable takes. The previous derivatives are consistent with the energy operator (or Hamiltonian operator), corresponding to the time derivative,

Substituting the energy and momentum operators into the classical energy conservation equation obtains the operator:

so in terms of derivatives with respect to time and space, acting this operator on the wave function Ψ immediately led Schrödinger to his equation:

Wave–particle duality can be assessed from these equations as follows. The kinetic energy T is related to the square of momentum p. As the particle's momentum increases, the kinetic energy increases more rapidly, but since the wave number |k| increases the wavelength λ decreases. In terms of ordinary scalar and vector quantities (not operators):

The kinetic energy is also proportional to the second spatial derivatives, so it is also proportional to the magnitude of the curvature of the wave, in terms of operators:

As the curvature increases, the amplitude of the wave alternates between positive and negative more rapidly, and also shortens the wavelength. So the inverse relation between momentum and wavelength is consistent with the energy the particle has, and so the energy of the particle has a connection to a wave, all in the same mathematical formulation.^[32]

where σ denotes the (root mean square) measurement uncertainty in x and px (and similarly for the y and z directions) which implies the position and momentum can only be known to arbitrary precision in this limit.

The Schrödinger equation in its general form

is closely related to the Hamilton–Jacobi equation (HJE)

Substituting

The implications are as follows:

The quantum mechanics of particles without accounting for the effects of special relativity, for example particles propagating at speeds much less than light, is known as nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Following are several forms of Schrödinger's equation in this context for different situations: time independence and dependence, one and three spatial dimensions, and one and N particles.

In actuality, the particles constituting the system do not have the numerical labels used in theory. The language of mathematics forces us to label the positions of particles one way or another, otherwise there would be confusion between symbols representing which variables are for which particle.^[34]

If the Hamiltonian is not an explicit function of time, the equation is separable into a product of spatial and temporal parts. In general, the wave function takes the form:

where ψ(space coords) is a function of all the spatial coordinate(s) of the particle(s) constituting the system only, and τ(t) is a function of time only.

Substituting for ψ into the Schrödinger equation for the relevant number of particles in the relevant number of dimensions, solving by separation of variables implies the general solution of the time-dependent equation has the form:^[20]

Since the time dependent phase factor is always the same, only the spatial part needs to be solved for in time independent problems. Additionally, the energy operator Ê = iħ∂/∂t can always be replaced by the energy eigenvalue E, thus the time independent Schrödinger equation is an eigenvalue equation for the Hamiltonian operator:^{[8] []}

This is true for any number of particles in any number of dimensions (in a time independent potential). This case describes the standing wave solutions of the time-dependent equation, which are the states with definite energy (instead of a probability distribution of different energies). In physics, these standing waves are called "stationary states" or "energy eigenstates"; in chemistry they are called "atomic orbitals" or "molecular orbitals". Superpositions of energy eigenstates change their properties according to the relative phases between the energy levels.

The energy eigenvalues from this equation form a discrete spectrum of values, so mathematically energy must be quantized. More specifically, the energy eigenstates form a basis – any wave function may be written as a sum over the discrete energy states or an integral over continuous energy states, or more generally as an integral over a measure. This is the spectral theorem in mathematics, and in a finite state space it is just a statement of the completeness of the eigenvectors of a Hermitian matrix.

For a particle in one dimension, the Hamiltonian is:

and substituting this into the general Schrödinger equation gives:

This is the only case the Schrödinger equation is an ordinary differential equation, rather than a partial differential equation. The general solutions are always of the form:

For N particles in one dimension, the Hamiltonian is:

where the position of particle n is xn. The corresponding Schrödinger equation is:

so the general solutions have the form:

For non-interacting distinguishable particles,^[39] the potential of the system only influences each particle separately, so the total potential energy is the sum of potential energies for each particle:

and the wave function can be written as a product of the wave functions for each particle:

For non-interacting identical particles, the potential is still a sum, but wave function is a bit more complicated – it is a sum over the permutations of products of the separate wave functions to account for particle exchange. In general for interacting particles, the above decompositions are not possible.

For no potential, V = 0, so the particle is free and the equation reads:^{[8] []}

which has oscillatory solutions for E > 0 (the Cn are arbitrary constants):

and exponential solutions for E < 0

The exponentially growing solutions have an infinite norm, and are not physical. They are not allowed in a finite volume with periodic or fixed boundary conditions.

See also free particle and wavepacket for more discussion on the free particle.

For a constant potential, V = V0, the solution is oscillatory for E > V0 and exponential for E < V0, corresponding to energies that are allowed or disallowed in classical mechanics. Oscillatory solutions have a classically allowed energy and correspond to actual classical motions, while the exponential solutions have a disallowed energy and describe a small amount of quantum bleeding into the classically disallowed region, due to quantum tunneling. If the potential V0 grows to infinity, the motion is classically confined to a finite region. Viewed far enough away, every solution is reduced to an exponential; the condition that the exponential is decreasing restricts the energy levels to a discrete set, called the allowed energies.^[35]

The Schrödinger equation for this situation is

This is an example of a quantum-mechanical system whose wave function can be solved for exactly. Furthermore, it can be used to describe approximately a wide variety of other systems, including vibrating atoms, molecules,^[40] and atoms or ions in lattices,^[41] and approximating other potentials near equilibrium points. It is also the basis of perturbation methods in quantum mechanics.

The solutions in position space are

The eigenvalues are

The extension from one dimension to three dimensions is straightforward, all position and momentum operators are replaced by their three-dimensional expressions and the partial derivative with respect to space is replaced by the gradient operator.

The Hamiltonian for one particle in three dimensions is:

generating the equation

with stationary state solutions of the form

where the position of particle n is rn and the gradient operators are partial derivatives with respect to the particle's position coordinates. In Cartesian coordinates, for particle n, the position vector is rn = (xn, yn, zn) while the gradient and Laplacian operator are respectively:

The Schrödinger equation is:

with stationary state solutions:

Again, for non-interacting distinguishable particles the potential is the sum of particle potentials

and the wave function is a product of the particle wave functions

For non-interacting identical particles, the potential is a sum but the wave function is a sum over permutations of products. The previous two equations do not apply to interacting particles.

Following are examples where exact solutions are known. See the main articles for further details.

The Schrödinger equation the hydrogen atom (or a hydrogen-like atom) is^[30][32]

The Schrödinger for a hydrogen atom can be solved by separation of variables.^[43] In this case, spherical polar coordinates are the most convenient. Thus,

where:

The generalized Laguerre polynomials are defined differently by different authors. See main article on them and the hydrogen atom.

where r1 is the relative position of one electron (r1 = |r1| is its relative magnitude), r2 is the relative position of the other electron (r2 = |r2| is the magnitude), r12 = |r12| is the magnitude of the separation between them given by

μ is again the two-body reduced mass of an electron with respect to the nucleus of mass M, so this time

and Z is the atomic number for the element (not a quantum number).

The cross-term of two Laplacians

is known as the mass polarization term, which arises due to the motion of atomic nuclei. The wave function is a function of the two electron's positions:

There is no closed form solution for this equation.

This is the equation of motion for the quantum state. In the most general form, it is written:^{[8] []}

and the solution, the wave function, is a function of all the particle coordinates of the system and time. Following are specific cases.

For one particle in one dimension, the Hamiltonian

generates the equation:

For N particles in one dimension, the Hamiltonian is:

where the position of particle n is xn, generating the equation:

For one particle in three dimensions, the Hamiltonian is:

generating the equation:

For N particles in three dimensions, the Hamiltonian is:

where the position of particle n is rn, generating the equation:^{[8] []}

This last equation is in a very high dimension, so the solutions are not easy to visualize.

The Schrödinger equation has the following properties: some are useful, but there are shortcomings. Ultimately, these properties arise from the Hamiltonian used, and the solutions to the equation.

In the development above, the Schrödinger equation was made to be linear for generality, though this has other implications. If two wave functions ψ1 and ψ2 are solutions, then so is any linear combination of the two:

where a and b are any complex numbers (the sum can be extended for any number of wave functions). This property allows superpositions of quantum states to be solutions of the Schrödinger equation. Even more generally, it holds that a general solution to the Schrödinger equation can be found by taking a weighted sum over all single state solutions achievable. For example, consider a wave function Ψ(x, t) such that the wave function is a product of two functions: one time independent, and one time dependent. If states of definite energy found using the time independent Schrödinger equation are given by ψE(x) with amplitude An and time dependent phase factor is given by

then a valid general solution is

Additionally, the ability to scale solutions allows one to solve for a wave function without normalizing it first. If one has a set of normalized solutions ψn, then

can be normalized by ensuring that

This is much more convenient than having to verify that

For the time-independent equation, an additional feature of linearity follows: if two wave functions ψ1 and ψ2 are solutions to the time-independent equation with the same energy E, then so is any linear combination:

Two different solutions with the same energy are called degenerate.^[35]

In an arbitrary potential, if a wave function ψ solves the time-independent equation, so does its complex conjugate, denoted ψ*. By taking linear combinations, the real and imaginary parts of ψ are each solutions. If there is no degeneracy they can only differ by a factor.

In the time-dependent equation, complex conjugate waves move in opposite directions. If Ψ(x, t) is one solution, then so is Ψ*(x, –t). The symmetry of complex conjugation is called time-reversal symmetry.

The Schrödinger equation is first order in time and second in space, which describes the time evolution of a quantum state (meaning it determines the future amplitude from the present).

Explicitly for one particle in 3-dimensional Cartesian coordinates – the equation is

The first time partial derivative implies the initial value (at t = 0) of the wave function

is an arbitrary constant. Likewise – the second order derivatives with respect to space implies the wave function and its first order spatial derivatives

are all arbitrary constants at a given set of points, where xb, yb, zb are a set of points describing boundary b (derivatives are evaluated at the boundaries). Typically there are one or two boundaries, such as the step potential and particle in a box respectively.

As the first order derivatives are arbitrary, the wave function can be a continuously differentiable function of space, since at any boundary the gradient of the wave function can be matched.

On the contrary, wave equations in physics are usually second order in time, notable are the family of classical wave equations and the quantum Klein–Gordon equation.

The Schrödinger equation is consistent with probability conservation. Multiplying the Schrödinger equation on the right by the complex conjugate wave function, and multiplying the wave function to the left of the complex conjugate of the Schrödinger equation, and subtracting, gives the continuity equation for probability:^[45]

where

is the probability density (probability per unit volume, * denotes complex conjugate), and

is the probability current (flow per unit area).

Hence predictions from the Schrödinger equation do not violate probability conservation.

If the potential is bounded from below, meaning there is a minimum value of potential energy, the eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger equation have energy which is also bounded from below. This can be seen most easily by using the variational principle, as follows. (See also below).

For any linear operator  bounded from below, the eigenvector with the smallest eigenvalue is the vector ψ that minimizes the quantity

over all ψ which are normalized.^[45] In this way, the smallest eigenvalue is expressed through the variational principle. For the Schrödinger Hamiltonian Ĥ bounded from below, the smallest eigenvalue is called the ground state energy. That energy is the minimum value of

(using integration by parts). Due to the complex modulus of ψ2 (which is positive definite), the right hand side is always greater than the lowest value of V(x). In particular, the ground state energy is positive when V(x) is everywhere positive.

For potentials which are bounded below and are not infinite over a region, there is a ground state which minimizes the integral above. This lowest energy wave function is real and positive definite – meaning the wave function can increase and decrease, but is positive for all positions. It physically cannot be negative: if it were, smoothing out the bends at the sign change (to minimize the wave function) rapidly reduces the gradient contribution to the integral and hence the kinetic energy, while the potential energy changes linearly and less quickly. The kinetic and potential energy are both changing at different rates, so the total energy is not constant, which can't happen (conservation). The solutions are consistent with Schrödinger equation if this wave function is positive definite.

The lack of sign changes also shows that the ground state is nondegenerate, since if there were two ground states with common energy E, not proportional to each other, there would be a linear combination of the two that would also be a ground state resulting in a zero solution.

The above properties (positive definiteness of energy) allow the analytic continuation of the Schrödinger equation to be identified as a stochastic process. This can be interpreted as the Huygens–Fresnel principle applied to De Broglie waves; the spreading wavefronts are diffusive probability amplitudes.^[45] For a free particle (not subject to a potential) in a random walk, substituting τ = it into the time-dependent Schrödinger equation gives:^[46]

which has the same form as the diffusion equation, with diffusion coefficient ħ/2m.

Relativistic quantum mechanics is obtained where quantum mechanics and special relativity simultaneously apply. In general, one wishes to build relativistic wave equations from the relativistic energy–momentum relation

instead of classical energy equations. The Klein–Gordon equation and the Dirac equation are two such equations. The Klein–Gordon equation,

was the first such equation to be obtained, even before the nonrelativistic one, and applies to massive spinless particles. The Dirac equation arose from taking the "square root" of the Klein–Gordon equation by factorizing the entire relativistic wave operator into a product of two operators – one of these is the operator for the entire Dirac equation. Entire Dirac equation:

The general form of the Schrödinger equation remains true in relativity, but the Hamiltonian is less obvious. For example, the Dirac Hamiltonian for a particle of mass m and electric charge q in an electromagnetic field (described by the electromagnetic potentials φ and A) is:

in which the γ = (γ1, γ2, γ3) and γ0 are the Dirac gamma matrices related to the spin of the particle. The Dirac equation is true for all spin-​1⁄2 particles, and the solutions to the equation are 4-component spinor fields with two components corresponding to the particle and the other two for the antiparticle.

For the Klein–Gordon equation, the general form of the Schrödinger equation is inconvenient to use, and in practice the Hamiltonian is not expressed in an analogous way to the Dirac Hamiltonian. The equations for relativistic quantum fields can be obtained in other ways, such as starting from a Lagrangian density and using the Euler–Lagrange equations for fields, or use the representation theory of the Lorentz group in which certain representations can be used to fix the equation for a free particle of given spin (and mass).

In general, the Hamiltonian to be substituted in the general Schrödinger equation is not just a function of the position and momentum operators (and possibly time), but also of spin matrices. Also, the solutions to a relativistic wave equation, for a massive particle of spin s, are complex-valued 2(2s + 1)-component spinor fields.

The general equation is also valid and used in quantum field theory, both in relativistic and nonrelativistic situations. However, the solution ψ is no longer interpreted as a "wave", but should be interpreted as an operator acting on states existing in a Fock space.

The Schrödinger equation can also be derived from a first order form^[47][48][49] similar to the manner in which the Klein–Gordon equation can be derived from the Dirac equation. In 1D the first order equation is given by

The 3 dimensional version of the equation is given by