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arXiv:0803.2670 · Physical Review Letters

Schrödinger Equation for a Particle on a Curved Surface in an Electric and Magnetic Field

Giulio Ferrari, Giampaolo Cuoghi

Published Jun 12, 2008• 202 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We derive the Schrödinger equation for a spinless charged particle constrained to move on a curved surface in the presence of an electric and magnetic field. The particle is confined on the surface using a thin-layer procedure, which gives rise to the well-known geometric potential. The electric and magnetic fields are included via the four potential. We find that there is no coupling between the fields and the surface curvature and that, with a proper choice of the gauge, the surface and transverse dynamics are exactly separable. Finally, we derive an analytic form of the Hamiltonian for spherical, cylindrical, and toroidal surfaces.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.100.230403

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We derive the Schrödinger equation for a spinless charged particle constrained to move on a curved surface in the presence of an electric and magnetic field. The particle is confined on the surface using a thin-layer procedure, which gives rise to the well-known geometric potential. The electric and magnetic fields are included via the four potential. We find that there is no coupling between the fields and the surface curvature and that, with a proper choice of the gauge, the surface and transverse dynamics are exactly separable. Finally, we derive an analytic form of the Hamiltonian for spherical, cylindrical, and toroidal surfaces.
We derive the Pauli equation for a charged spin particle confined to move on a spatially curved surface S\mathcal{S}S in an electromagnetic field. Using the thin-layer quantization scheme to constrain the particle on S\mathcal{S}S, and in the transformed spinor representations, we obtain the well-known geometric potential Vg{V}_{g}Vg​ and the presence of ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}i\ensuremath{\varphi}}$, which can generate additive spin connection geometric potentials by the curvilinear coordinates derivatives, and we find that the two fundamental evidences in the literature [Giulio Ferrari and Giampaolo Cuoghi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 230403 (2008)] are still valid in the present system without source current perpendicular to S\mathcal{S}S. Finally, we apply the surface Pauli equation to spherical, cylindrical, and toroidal surfaces, in which we obtain expectantly the geometric potentials and new spin connection geometric potentials, and find that only the normal Pauli matrix appears in these equations.
We derive the Schrödinger equation of a particle constrained to move on a rotating curved surface S. Using the thin-layer quantization scheme to confine the particle on S, and with a proper choice of gauge transformation for the wave function, we obtain the well-known geometric potential V g and an additive Coriolis-induced geometric potential in the co-rotational curvilinear coordinates. This novel effective potential, which is included in the surface Schrödinger equation and is coupled with the mean curvature of S, contains an imaginary part in the general case which gives rise to a non-Hermitian surface Hamiltonian. We find that the non-Hermitian term vanishes when S is a minimal surface or a revolution surface which is axially symmetric around the rolling axis.
We discuss the dynamics of a classical spinless quantum particle carrying electric charge and constrained to move on a nonsingular static surface in ordinary three-dimensional space in the presence of arbitrary configurations of time independent electric currents. Starting from the canonical action in the embedding space we show that a charged particle with charge qqq couples to a term linear in qA3Mq{A}^{3}MqA3M, where A3{A}^{3}A3 is the transverse component of the electromagnetic vector potential and MMM is the mean curvature in the surface. This term cancels exactly a curvature contribution to the orbital magnetic moment of the particle. It is shown that particles, independently of the value of the charge, in addition to the known couplings to the geometry also couple to the mean curvature in the surface when a Neumann type of constraint is applied on the transverse fluctuations of the wave function. In contrast to a Dirichlet constraint on the transverse fluctuations a Neumann type of constraint on these degrees of freedom will in general make the equations of motion nonseparable. The exceptions are the equations of motion for electrically neutral particles on surfaces with constant mean curvature. In the presence of electric currents the equation of motion of a charged particle is generally nonseparable independently of the coupling to the geometry and the boundary constraints.
Using the thin-layer quantization, we formulate the problem of a Schrödinger particle constrained to move along a coordinate surface of the bi-spherical coordinate system. In three-dimensional space, the free Schrödinger equation is not separable in this coordinate system. However, when we consider the equation for a particle constrained to a given surface, there are only two degrees of freedom. One has to introduce a geometrical potential to attach the particle to the surface. This well-known potential has two contributions: one from Gauss’ curvature and the other from the mean curvature. The Schrödinger equation leads to a general Heun equation. We solve it exactly and present the eigenfunctions and plots of the probability densities, and, as an application of this methodology, we study the problem of an electric charge propagating along these coordinate surfaces in the presence of a uniform magnetic field.
Abstract We construct the Hermitian Schrödinger Hamiltonian of spin-less particles and the gauge-covariant Pauli Hamiltonian of spin one-half particles in a magnetic field, which are confined to cylindrical and spherical surfaces. The approach does not require the use of involved differential-geometrical methods and is intuitive and physical, relying on the general requirements of Hermicity and gauge-covariance. The surfaces are embedded in the full three-dimensional space and confinement to the surfaces is achieved by strong radial potentials. We identify the Hermitian and gauge-covariant (in the presence of a magnetic field) physical radial momentum in each case and set it to zero upon confinement to the surfaces. The resulting surface Hamiltonians are seen to be automatically Hermitian and gauge-covariant. The well-known geometrical kinetic energy also emerges naturally.
We calculate exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation for a particle constrained to move along a spherical surface and interacting with non-central potentials, namely, (i) Makarov, (ii) ring-shaped pseudo-harmonic oscillatory, and (iii) Kratzer potentials. We also study exact solutions of the Pauli equation in the same geometrical setting for a charged particle in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. In this case, the two-component spinor can adhere to the surface only if the magnetic field intensity has certain special values. The solutions of Schrödinger equations allow us to obtain exact Pauli spinors and their corresponding energy eigenvalues for the same non-central potentials.