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arXiv:1512.01356

Analytical Solutions of the Quantum Hamilton-Jacobi Equation and Exact WKB-Like Representations of One-Dimensional Wave Functions

M. Fusco Girard

Published Dec 4, 2015• 2 citations
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Abstract

General analytical solutions of the Quantum Hamilton Jacobi Equation for conservative one-dimensional or reducible motion are presented and discussed. The quantum Hamilton's characteristic function and its derivative, i.e. the quantum momentum function, are obtained in general, and it is shown that any one-dimensional wave function can be exactly represented in a WKB-like form. The formalism is applied to the harmonic oscillator and to the electron's motion in the hydrogen atom, and the above mentioned functions are computed and discussed for different quantum numbers. It is analyzed how the quantum quantities investigated tend to the corresponding classical ones, in the limit $\hbar\to 0$. These results demonstrate that the Quantum Hamilton Jacobi Equation is not only completely equivalent to the Schrödinger Equation, but allows also to fully investigate the transition from quantum to classical mechanics.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1512.01356

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General analytical solutions of the Quantum Hamilton Jacobi Equation for conservative one-dimensional or reducible motion are presented and discussed. The quantum Hamilton's characteristic function and its derivative, i.e. the quantum momentum function, are obtained in general, and it is shown that any one-dimensional wave function can be exactly represented in a WKB-like form. The formalism is applied to the harmonic oscillator and to the electron's motion in the hydrogen atom, and the above mentioned functions are computed and discussed for different quantum numbers. It is analyzed how the quantum quantities investigated tend to the corresponding classical ones, in the limit ℏ→0\hbar\to 0ℏ→0. These results demonstrate that the Quantum Hamilton Jacobi Equation is not only completely equivalent to the Schrödinger Equation, but allows also to fully investigate the transition from quantum to classical mechanics.
By means of numerical solutions of the quantum Hamilton Jacobi equation, a general WKB-like representation for one-dimensional wave functions is obtained. This representation is unique in the classically forbidden regions, while in the allowed one, each wave function corresponds to a one parameter family of solutions of the QHJE. The method has been applied to various systems, with different energies and initial conditions. In all investigated cases, the wave functions so obtained accurately reproduce the solutions of the Schrödinger equation, analytically or numerically computed by other ways. Some results for harmonic oscillator and radial Coulomb motion are presented.
The numerical version of the Hamilton-Jacobi quantization method, recently proposed, is applied to the one dimensional quartic oscillator. A suitable quantization condition is formulated and various energy levels and wave functions are computed. The results very well agree with those obtained by means of the Schroedinger equation, and confirm that the Quantum Hamilton Jacobi approach, which is the exact version of the semiclassical WKB scheme, is a self-contained quantization procedure, equivalent and independent from the Schoedinger's one but more general. Indeed, with respect to this latter, the Quantum Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be used to investigate the limit h->0, where the Schroedinger equation loses its significance, and explains how the fundamental quantities of the classical mechanics, the Hamilton's characteristic function and the classical momentum, are generated from the corresponding quantum ones.
We study how the classical Hamilton's principal and characteristic functions are generated from the solutions of the quantum Hamilton–Jacobi equation. While in the classically forbidden regions these quantum quantities directly tend to the classical ones, this is not the case in the allowed regions. There, the limit is reached only if the quantum fluctuations are eliminated by means of coarse-graining averages. Analogously, the classical Hamilton–Jacobi scheme bringing to the motion's equations arises from a similar formal quantum procedure. Quanta 2022; 11: 42–52.
Hamilton-Jacobi theory is a fundamental subject of classical mechanics and has also an important role in the development of quantum mechanics. Its conceptual framework results from the advantages of transformation theory and, for this reason, relates to the features of the generating function of canonical transformations connecting a specific Hamiltonian H to a new Hamiltonian K chosen to simplify Hamilton's equations of motion. Usually, the choice is between K=0 and a cyclic K depending on the new conjugate momenta only. Here, we investigate more general representations of the new Hamiltonian. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the two common alternatives of K=0 and a cyclic K should be distinguished in more detail. An attempt is made to clearly discern the two regimes for the harmonic oscillator and, not surprisingly, some correspondences to the quantum harmonic oscillator appear. Thanks to this preparatory work, generalized coordinates and momenta associated with the Hamilton's principal function S (i.e., K=0) are used to determine dependences in the Hamilton's characteristic function W (i.e., cyclic K). The procedure leads to the Schrodinger's equation where the Hamilton's characteristic function plays the role of the Schrodinger's wave function, whereas the first integral invariant of Poincare' takes the place of the reduced Planck constant. This finding advances the pedagogical value of the Hamilton-Jacobi theory in view of an introduction to Schrodinger's wave mechanics without the tools of quantum mechanics.
We present the analytic solution for the stationary quantum HamiltonJacobi equation. Knowing the strong relation between the Riccati and quantum Hamilton-Jacobi equations, we develop a simple method to obtain the exact solution. Then, in order to prove the validity of the proposed method, we use two central potentials: the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator and Coulomb potential, both with bound-states. Finally, we compute the action-angle variables in a entirely quantum version for to achieve connect with the nodes of the wave function.