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arXiv:1310.3952

Ground states and dynamics of a trapped charged particle in the magnetic field

Maciej Janowicz, Jan Mostowski

Published Oct 15, 2013• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A system of two charged particles in a harmonic trap with additional magnetic field is considered. The problem is reduced to a single-particle one in relative coordinates. The ground- and lowest excited-state energies and wave functions are found. The ground state exhibits non-zero expectation value of the velocity (kinetic momentum) and the probability current density does not vanish as well. When the ground state becomes degenerate the expectation value of velocity becomes discontinuous. The effects associated with turning on of the magnetic field are studied by solving the appropriate time-dependent Schrödinger equation. No substantial differences between abrupt (discontinuous in time) and continuous switching on have been observed. Evolution of a wave packet which is initially Gaussian is also investigated. The wave packet loses its Gaussian nature and, after sufficiently large time, a system of diffractive maxima and minima is built.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1310.3952

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A system of two charged particles in a harmonic trap with additional magnetic field is considered. The problem is reduced to a single-particle one in relative coordinates. The ground- and lowest excited-state energies and wave functions are found. The ground state exhibits non-zero expectation value of the velocity (kinetic momentum) and the probability current density does not vanish as well. When the ground state becomes degenerate the expectation value of velocity becomes discontinuous. The effects associated with turning on of the magnetic field are studied by solving the appropriate time-dependent Schrödinger equation. No substantial differences between abrupt (discontinuous in time) and continuous switching on have been observed. Evolution of a wave packet which is initially Gaussian is also investigated. The wave packet loses its Gaussian nature and, after sufficiently large time, a system of diffractive maxima and minima is built.
Abstract We have calculated the effect of a magnetic field on the evolution of angular momentum eigenfunctions of a charged particle. An additional harmonic potential is supplemented to trap the wave packet. We find the probability density of the wave function is oscillating in the radial direction with a time period determined by the strength of the effective harmonic potential. When the magnetic field is along the z direction, if the initial wave function is an eigenfunction of L ˆ z , the probability density of the particle remains axis-symmetric. While for the case of an eigenfunction of L ˆ x , it is anisotropic in the x−y plane and rotates with a time period inverse proportional to the strength of the external magnetic field. We also extend the results in a phenomenological way to the case with an external magnetic field that varies harmonically in time.
In the present work we treat the problem of a particle in a uniform magnetic field along the symmetric gauge, so chosen since the wavefunctions present the required cylindrical symmetry. It is our understanding that by means of this work we can make a contribution to the teaching of the present subject, as well as encourage students to use computer algebra systems in solving problems of quantum mechanics. We obtained the degeneracy of the spectrum of eigenvalues in a very clear way. Through the use of a computer algebra system we show graphs of the probability density associated with different eigenvalues as well as compare such functions for some degenerate states, which helps us to visualize the physics of the problem. We also present a semiclassical model which gives a physical insight regarding the paradoxical fact that eigenfunctions associated with opposite angular momenta and different energy eigenvalues have the same probability density. Finally, by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation we obtain the time evolution of a wave packet that at time zero was considered to be localized in a definite region of the lattice. The centroid of such a packet performs an orbit similar to that obtained in the classical treatment of a particle in a magnetic field.
Essentially, we solve the particle-field equations obtained in the matter distribution quantum mechanics. In the framework of this theory, a particle is described by a density amplitude function, we call wave function, as a packet of waves with the time dependent phases proportional to the relativistic Lagrangian. The mass quantization of such a particle, as a distribution of matter, is obtained from the equality of the spatial integral of the density with the mass as a characteristic of the relativistic dynamics of this matter. The particle dynamics, as a motion of a mass spatial distribution, is obtained from the equality of the wave propagation velocities with the distribution coordinate velocities. This description is a physical one, compared to the Schrödinger-Heisenberg description leading to unphysical results as a null velocity for the kinetic energy as a constant of motion, or Zitterbewegung. The description of a particle interaction with an electromagnetic field by additional Lagrangian terms, with a vector potential conjugated to coordinates, as in the Aharonov-Bohm effect, and an electric potential conjugated to time, leads to the Lorentz force, and the Maxwell equations. In the two conjugated spaces, of the coordinates and of the momentum, the dynamics of a quantum particle is described by propagation operators, depending on the coordinate-momentum product, applied to time dependent wave functions satisfying matter-field equations. Unlike the standard Schrödinger or Schrödinger-Dirac equations, depending only on the Hamiltonian operator, instead of the Hamiltonian these equations contain the Lagrangian, which, besides the Hamiltonian, include additional terms with an explicit dependence on velocity, as it is expected in a relativistic theory. We obtain the wave function of a particle-antiparticle system interacting with an electromagnetic field, as a wave packet of spinors propagating in space with finite dimensions, given by the finite definition domain of the density function, in the space of the matter-field momentum, as a constant of motion. We show that an electrically charged quantum particle, rotating in a central electric field, generates a vector potential with a magnetic field perpendicular to the rotational plane and an electric field in this plane. By a quantum transition, a photon is emitted in the particle rotational plane, with the magnetic field perpendicular to this plane, and the electric field contained in this plane. In this framework, the vector potential rotation is correlated to a particle momentum rotation, for the canonical matter-field momentum as a constant of motion, without any electromagnetic field radiated outside.
A nonrelativistic charged particle moving in an anisotropic harmonic oscillator potential plus a homogeneous static electromagnetic field is studied. Several configurations of the electromagnetic field are considered. The Schrödinger equation is solved analytically in most of the cases. The energy levels and wave functions are obtained explicitly. In some of the cases, the ground state obtained is not a minimum wave packet, though it is of the Gaussian type. Coherent and squeezed states and their time evolution are discussed in detail.
For the case of uniform magnetic field and a potential quadratic in its coordinates an electron state originally represented by a Gaussian wave packet remains Gaussian in its subsequent evolution. Under these conditions the state is completely characterized by the first-and second-order quantum means, that is, quantities such as 〈qi〉〈{q}_{i}〉〈qi​〉, 〈pi〉〈{p}_{i}〉〈pi​〉 and 〈qipj〉〈{q}_{i}{p}_{j}〉〈qi​pj​〉, 〈pipj〉〈{p}_{i}{p}_{j}〉〈pi​pj​〉, respectively. A tensor-product relationship is shown to exist between the problem of the determination of the second- and first-order means which facilitates the solution. Two problems are treated in detail: (i) an isotropic wave packet in an isotropic potential well and (ii) the dynamics of a wave packet on a quadratic saddle point. In the former case, the wave packet "spins" and its radius pulsates as its mean follows the classical trajectory. In the second the magnetic field effect on tunneling through such barriers is studied and found to be small at attainable field strengths unless the effective electronic mass is very small. A method for the numerical solution for the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation, termed the particle method and based on the hydrodynamic analogy to that equation, is here extended to include magnetic fields. It is applied to the two problems just described and found to agree well with the analytical solutions.