Please tell me where I am going wrong in this integral

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The discussion revolves around a calculation involving the integral of a wave function, specifically the expectation value of position. The user initially miscalculated the integral due to not recognizing the odd nature of the integrand, which led to an incorrect result. Upon receiving feedback, they acknowledged the mistake, realizing that the integral over an odd function from negative to positive infinity equals zero. The user confirmed that the remaining calculations were straightforward. Ultimately, the correct expectation value should simply be x_0.
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Homework Statement
Given the wavefunction, determine the expectation value of the particle's position
Relevant Equations
##\Psi=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi}(b)^{1/4}}\exp(\frac{ip_0x}{\hbar}-\frac{(x-x_0)^2}{2b^2})##
##|\Psi|^2=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi b^2}}\exp(\frac{-(x-x_0)^2}{b^2}).##
##\braket{x}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi b^2}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}dx\,x\exp(-\frac{(x-x_0)^2}{b^2}).##
##y=x-x_0 \quad x=y+x_0 \quad dy=dx.##
The boundaries remain infinite, I believe.
##\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi b^2}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}dy(y+x_0)\exp(\frac{-y^2}{b^2}).##
##\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi b^2}}\int_0^{\infty}dy\,y\exp(\frac{-y^2}{b^2})+\frac{2x_0}{\sqrt{\pi b^2}}\int_0^{\infty}dy\,\exp(-\frac{y^2}{b^2}).##
I then resolved the two integrals separately using the relations for Gaussian integrals in the back cover of Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths.
##\frac{b}{\sqrt{\pi}}+x_0.##
This is not correct. The result should be ##x_0##. I have retraced my steps multiple times and have redone the calculation using a different substitution but get the same result. Would appreciate someone pointing out the problem.
 
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bluepilotg-2_07 said:
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In the second line, the first integral has an integrand that is odd in ##y##. You cannot replace ##\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}## by ##2\int_{0}^{\infty} ##.
 
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Hello, thank you for the response! I should have known better, but wasn't considering even and oddness. I realize now that the first integral goes to zero since it is odd and being integrated over symmetric boundaries and the rest is trivial.
Thanks again!
 
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