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arXiv:1403.2496

On Time in Quantum Mechanics

Nicola Vona

Published Jan 1, 2014• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Although time measurements are routinely performed in laboratories, their theoretical description is still an open problem. Correspondingly, the status of the energy-time uncertainty relation is unsettled. In the first part of this work the necessity of positive operator valued measures (POVM) as descriptions of every quantum experiment is reviewed, as well as the suggestive role played by the probability current in time measurements. Furthermore, it is shown that no POVM exists, which approximately agrees with the probability current on a very natural set of wave functions; nevertheless, the choice of the set is crucial, and on more restrictive sets the probability current does provide a good arrival time prediction. Some ideas to experimentally detect quantum effects in time measurements are discussed. In the second part of the work the energy-time uncertainty relation is considered, in particular for a model of alpha decay for which the variance of the energy can be calculated explicitly, and the variance of time can be estimated. This estimate is tight for systems with long lifetimes, in which case the uncertainty relation is shown to be satisfied. Also the linewidth-lifetime relation is shown to hold, but contrary to the common expectation, it is found that the two relations behave independently, and therefore it is not possible to interpret one as a consequence of the other. To perform the mentioned analysis quantitative scattering estimates are necessary. To this end, bounds of the form $\|1_Re^{-iHt}ψ\|_2^2 \leq C t^{-3}$ have been derived, where $ψ$ denotes the initial state, $H$ the Hamiltonian, $R$ a positive constant, and $C$ is explicitly known. As intermediate step, bounds on the derivatives of the $S$-matrix in the form $\|1_K S^{(n)}\|_\infty \leq C_{n,K} $ have been established, with $n=1,2,3$, and the constants $C_{n,K}$ explicitly known.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1403.2496

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Although time measurements are routinely performed in laboratories, their theoretical description is still an open problem. Correspondingly, the status of the energy-time uncertainty relation is unsettled. In the first part of this work the necessity of positive operator valued measures (POVM) as descriptions of every quantum experiment is reviewed, as well as the suggestive role played by the probability current in time measurements. Furthermore, it is shown that no POVM exists, which approximately agrees with the probability current on a very natural set of wave functions; nevertheless, the choice of the set is crucial, and on more restrictive sets the probability current does provide a good arrival time prediction. Some ideas to experimentally detect quantum effects in time measurements are discussed. In the second part of the work the energy-time uncertainty relation is considered, in particular for a model of alpha decay for which the variance of the energy can be calculated explicitly, and the variance of time can be estimated. This estimate is tight for systems with long lifetimes, in which case the uncertainty relation is shown to be satisfied. Also the linewidth-lifetime relation is shown to hold, but contrary to the common expectation, it is found that the two relations behave independently, and therefore it is not possible to interpret one as a consequence of the other. To perform the mentioned analysis quantitative scattering estimates are necessary. To this end, bounds of the form ∥1Re−iHtψ∥22≤Ct−3\|1_Re^{-iHt}ψ\|_2^2 \leq C t^{-3}∥1R​e−iHtψ∥22​≤Ct−3 have been derived, where ψψψ denotes the initial state, HHH the Hamiltonian, RRR a positive constant, and CCC is explicitly known. As intermediate step, bounds on the derivatives of the SSS-matrix in the form ∥1KS(n)∥∞≤Cn,K\|1_K S^{(n)}\|_\infty \leq C_{n,K} ∥1K​S(n)∥∞​≤Cn,K​ have been established, with n=1,2,3n=1,2,3n=1,2,3, and the constants Cn,KC_{n,K}Cn,K​ explicitly known.
What is the right statistics for the measurements of arrival times of a quantum particle? Although this question is very old, it is still open. The usual experiments are performed in the far-field regime and this question becomes unimportant, as a semiclassical analysis suffices. Nevertheless, the development in the detector technology will soon allow for near-field investigations; thus, a better understanding of arrival time measurements is needed. Since outcomes of quantum measurements are always described by positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs), various arrival time POVMs have been proposed. On the other hand, many physicists would agree that the arrival time statistics is given by the quantum flux. This urges the question whether a POVM exists, which agrees approximately with the quantum flux values on a reasonable set of wave functions. We answer this question negatively for a very natural set of wave functions, but we remark that the answer is very sensitive to the choice of the set and provide evidence for the existence of a POVM that agrees with the quantum flux on a more restrictive set.
This thesis is concerned with quantum mechanical decay processes and their mathematical description. It consists out of three parts: In the first part we look at Laser induced ionization, whose mathematical description is often based on the so-called dipole approximation. Employing it essentially means to replace the Laser's vector potential A⃗(r⃗,t)\vec A(\vec r,t)A(r,t) in the Hamiltonian by A⃗(0,t).\vec A(0, t).A(0,t). Heuristically this is justified under usual experimental conditions, because the Laser varies only slowly in r⃗\vec rr on atomic length scales. We make this heuristics rigorous by proving the dipole approximation in the limit in which the Laser's length scale becomes infinite compared to the atomic length scale. Our results apply to NNN-body Hamiltonians. In the second part we look at alpha decay as described by Skibsted (Comm. Math. Phys. 104, 1986) and show that Skibsted's model satisfies an energy-time uncertainty relation. Since there is no self-adjoint time operator, the uncertainty relation for energy and time can not be proven in the same way as the uncertainty relation for position and momentum. To define the time variance without a self-adjoint time operator, we will use the arrival time distribution obtained from the quantum current. Our proof of the energy-time uncertainty relation is then based on the quantitative scattering estimates that will be derived in the third part of the thesis and on a result from Skibsted. In addition to that, we will show that this uncertainty relation is different from the well known {\it linewidth-lifetime relation}. The third part is about quantitative scattering estimates, which are of interest in their own right. For rotationally symmetric potentials having support in [0,RV][0,R_V][0,RV​] we will show that for R≥RVR\geq R_VR≥RV​, the time evolved wave function e−iHtψe^{-iHt}\psie−iHtψ satisfies \begin{align}\nonumber \|\1_R e^{-iHt}\psi\|_2^2\leq c_1t^{-1}+c_2t^{-2}+c_3t^{-3}+c_4t^{-4} \end{align} with explicit quantitative bounds on the constants cnc_ncn​ in terms of the resonances of the SSS-Matrix. While such bounds on $\|\1_R e^{-iHt}\psi\|_2$ have been proven before, the quantitative estimates on the constants cnc_ncn​ are new. These results are based on a detailed analysis of the SSS-matrix in the complex momentum plane, which in turn becomes possible by expressing the SSS-matrix in terms of the Jost function that can be factorized in a Hadamard product.
Uncertainty relations play a crucial role in quantum mechanics. Well-defined methods exist for the derivation of such uncertainties for pairs of observables. Other approaches also allow the formulation of time-energy uncertainty relations, even though time is not an operator in standard quantum mechanics. However, in these cases, different approaches are associated with different meanings and interpretations for these relations. The one of interest here revolves around the idea of whether quantum mechanics inherently imposes a fundamental minimum duration for energy measurements with a certain precision. In our study, we investigate within the Page and Wootters timeless framework how energy measurements modify the relative "flow of time'' between internal and external clocks. This provides a unified framework for discussing the subject, allowing us to recover previous results and derive new ones. In particular, we show that the duration of an energy measurement carried out by an external system cannot be performed arbitrarily fast from the perspective of the internal clock. Moreover, we show that during any energy measurement the evolution given by the internal clock is non-unitary.
We extend previous work on the arrival time problem in quantum mechanics, in the framework of decoherent histories, to the case of a particle coupled to an environment. The usual arrival time probabilities are related to the probability current, so we explore the properties of the current for general open systems that can be written in terms of a master equation of the Lindblad form. We specialize to the case of quantum Brownian motion, and show that after a time of order the localization time of the current becomes positive. We show that the arrival time probabilities can then be written in terms of a positive operator-valued measure (POVM), which we compute. We perform a decoherent histories analysis including the effects of the environment and show that time-of-arrival probabilities are decoherent for a generic state after a time much greater than the localization time, but that there is a fundamental limitation on the accuracy $\ensuremath{\delta}t$, with which they can be specified which obeys $E\ensuremath{\delta}t\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\hbar}$. We confirm that the arrival time probabilities computed in this way agree with those computed via the current, provided there is decoherence. We thus find that the decoherent histories formulation of quantum mechanics provides a consistent explanation for the emergence of the probability current as the classical arrival time distribution, and a systematic rule for deciding when probabilities may be assigned.
Suppose we measure the time-dependent spectrum of a single photon. That is, we first send the photon through a set of frequency filters (which we assume to have different filter frequencies but the same finite bandwidth $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$) and then record at what time (with some finite precision $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}t$ and some finite efficiency $\ensuremath{\eta}$) and after passing what filter the photon is detected. What is the positive-operator-valued measure (POVM), the most general description of a quantum measurement, corresponding to such a measurement? We show how to construct the POVM in various cases, with special interest in the case $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}t\ensuremath{\ll}1$ (time-frequency uncertainty still holds, even in that limit). One application of the formalism is to heralding single photons. We also find a Hong-Ou-Mandel type of interference effect with two photons entering a frequency filter.