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arXiv:2007.11886

On the conditions for the classicality of a quantum particle

Kuzmichev, V. E., V. V. Kuzmichev

Published Jul 23, 2020• 0 citations
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Abstract

Conditions under which a quantum particle is described using classical quantities are studied. The one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) problems are considered. It is shown that the sum of the contributions from all quantum corrections (in the WKB sense) strictly vanishes, when a quantum particle interacts with some specific medium. The indices of refraction of such media are found. In this case, the smallness of the Planck constant is not assumed. The momenta of quantum particles in these media and the wave functions of stationary states are determined. It is found that, for the 1D case, the wave function is similar to that of the test particle with zero binding energy in a singular attractive potential, which admits "fall" to the center. For the 3D case with central symmetry, a stationary state, describing a quantum particle with a classical momentum, is defined by the wave function, which has the resonance of width about two de Broglie wavelengths.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2007.11886

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Conditions under which a quantum particle is described using classical quantities are studied. The one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) problems are considered. It is shown that the sum of the contributions from all quantum corrections (in the WKB sense) strictly vanishes, when a quantum particle interacts with some specific medium. The indices of refraction of such media are found. In this case, the smallness of the Planck constant is not assumed. The momenta of quantum particles in these media and the wave functions of stationary states are determined. It is found that, for the 1D case, the wave function is similar to that of the test particle with zero binding energy in a singular attractive potential, which admits "fall" to the center. For the 3D case with central symmetry, a stationary state, describing a quantum particle with a classical momentum, is defined by the wave function, which has the resonance of width about two de Broglie wavelengths.
Conditions under which a quantum particle can be described using classical quantities are studied. We investigate the wavefunction of a quantum particle submitted to a potential field for which all quantum effects vanish, even if Planck's constant is non-negligible. This problem is equivalent to the problem of the motion of a particle in a refringent medium. The indices of refraction of such media are found. In these media, quantum particles have classical momenta, while their wave properties are described by the wave-optics equation with a characteristic length equal to the de Broglie wavelength ƛ. In the 1D case, the particle cannot be found in the region near the origin, since the index of refraction tends to infinity there. For the 3D case with central symmetry, the wave properties are determined by a function that has a resonance of width about 2ƛ. Experimental verification of theoretical predictions is discussed.
A quantum potential V (x, t) of δ-function type is introduced, to describe the motion of a particle. Quantum-mechanically, it is in a bound state (potential trap of Hojman and Asenjo [6]), though classically one seems to be free. The motion of the object takes place according to the Huygens-Fresnel principle. The new position of the object (wave front) plays the role of the secondary sources that maintain the propagation. We found that the de Broglie-Bohm quantum potential is the difference between the constant bound energy E = −mc 2 /2 from the stationary case and our potential V (x, t).
Exact solutions describing a fall of a particle to the centre of a non-regularized singular potential in classical and quantum cases are obtained and compared. We inspect the quantum problem with the help of the conventional Schrödinger’s equation. During the fall, the wave function spatial localization area contracts into a single zero-dimensional point. For the fall-admitting potentials, the Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian. Because of that, the wave function norm occurs time-dependent. It demands an extension to this case of the continuity equation and rules for mean value calculations. Surprisingly, the quantum and classical solutions exhibit striking similarities. In particular, both are self-similar as the particle energy equals zero. The characteristic spatial scales of the quantum and classical self-similar solutions obey the same temporal dependence. We present arguments indicating that these self-similar solutions are attractors to a broader class of solutions, describing the fall at finite energy of the particle.
Striking parallelism between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics is evidenced for several bound system in a rather general form by introducing reasonably “quantum-mechanical momentum” from the Schrödinger equation. The following are proved: The “quantum-mechanical momentum” which is nearly equal to the corresponding classical momentum in “classical region” can be defined in the whole range of validity of the coordinate for the bound systems. In the same way as in classical mechanics, in quantum mechanics one can construct an associated wave accompanying a motion of a quantum particle and obeying the Schrödinger equation. The uniqueness condition on the associated wave throughout an orbit leads to the boundary condition on the wave function which is composed of the associated wave and to “quantum-mechanical quantization condition”, equivalently. In addition, all these quantum-mechanical quantities are approximately equal to the corresponding classical ones in the “classical region” of the coordinate. In particular it is demonstrated that even for a bound system of a singular (central) potential exists the ground state with the lowest energy eigenvalue. It is proved in one dimension that to any physical system obeying the Schrödinger equation always exists the corresponding classical system.
The fall of a particle to the center of a singular potential U(r) is one of a few fundamental problems of quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, its solution is not complete yet. The known results just indicate that if U(r) decays fast enough at r tends to zero, the spectrum of the Schrodinger equation is not bounded from below. However, the wave functions of the problem are singular at r = 0 and do not admit the limiting transition to the wave function of the ground state. Therefore, the unboundedness of the spectrum is only the necessary condition. To prove that a quantum particle indeed can fall to the center, a wave function describing the fall should be obtained explicitly. This is done in the present paper. Specifically, an exact solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation describing the fall to the center is obtained and analyzed. The law describing the collapse to a single point of the region of the wave function localization is obtained explicitly, as well as the temporal dependences of the average kinetic and potential energy of the falling particle and its momentum. It is shown that the known necessary conditions for the particle to fall simultaneously are sufficient.
An analysis of the change in the concept of a particle required by the passage from classical to quantum theory suggests a ’’classical particle representation’’ for the latter which should allow purely quantum-mechanical results to be cast into a form suited to interpretation in semiclassical terms. Application of this representation to the examples of the free particle and the particle in a constant force field essentially reproduces the usual arguments as to how classical trajectories can be generated in the quantum theory, although from a somewhat different point of view than that usually presented. Applying the representation to the energy eigenfunctions of the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator provides an interesting semiclassical interpretation of these functions and their relationship to the quantization rules of the old quantum theory. Some speculations regarding other possible applications of this approach are also presented.