Expectation of momentum in the bound state

Is it logically correct to assert that the expectation of the momentum $\langle p \rangle=0$ for any bound state because it is bound to some finite region?

Bound state means the particles are bounded somewhere. Its wavefunction will vanish at the asymptotic limit. A bound state could be a superposition of a finite number of bound eigenstates. For instance, the superposition of the ground and first excited-state wavefunction of particle-in-box will still vanish at far limit.

I think one can only conclude for non-relativistic, bound, eigenstate (not any bound state) $\langle \hat{p} \rangle=0$. Since $$\langle n | p | n \rangle \sim \langle n | [H,x] | n \rangle = \langle n | Hx-xH | n \rangle = E_n ( \langle n| x | n \rangle - \langle n| x | n \rangle) =0 $$. If we relax the state into any bound state $| \rangle$, we have $$\langle | p | \rangle \sim \langle | [H,x] | \rangle = \sum_n c^*_n E_n \langle n | x | \rangle - c_n E_n\langle |x | n \rangle \neq0 $$ in general.


$\newcommand{ket}{\left| #1 \right>}$ $\newcommand{bra}{\left< #1 \right|}$ $\newcommand{\bk}[3]{\left< #1| #2 |#3\right>}$ In a one dimensional problem $\langle \hat p \rangle$ is always zero. $$\langle \hat p \rangle = \bk{\psi}{\hat p}{\psi}=\int \mathrm{d}x \,\psi^* \hat p \, \psi \propto \int \mathrm{d}x \, \psi^* \psi' \overset{(1)}{=}-\int \mathrm{d}x \, (\psi^*)' \psi \overset{(2)}{=} -\int \mathrm{d}x \, \psi' \psi^* $$

Where in (1) I integrated by parts and assumed that $\psi \to 0$ as $x \to \infty$ and in (2) I used the fact that you can always choose a bounded energy eigenstate to be real, which implies that I can take the complex conjugate at no cost. Notice that we have the following:

$$ \bk{\psi}{p}{\psi} \propto - \int \mathrm{d}x \, \psi' \psi^* = \int \mathrm{d}x \, \psi' \psi^* \iff \bk{\psi}{p}{\psi} = 0$$


A hint on this could be the fact that a superposition of stationary states of different energies is NOT a stationary state, because you can not express the wave function as the product of a single time-dependent exponential tiames a spatial function.