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Dissipative Bohmian mechanics: A trajectory analysis of wave-packet dynamics in viscid media

Ángel S. Sanz, R. Mart, Germán A. Rojas-Lorenzo

Published Jun 27, 2013• 4 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Classical viscid media are quite common in our everyday life. However, we are not used to find such media in quantum mechanics and much less to analyze their effects on the dynamics of quantum systems. Here we provide a Bohmian analysis of the friction dynamics led by hypothetical quantum viscid media, which will be simulated by means of the so-called Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian. As it is shown, this causal model enables a better understanding of phenomena, such as quantum localization (“quantum freezing”) or the quantum-to-classical transition. We have analyzed these phenomena in a series of paradigmatic situations of quantum mechanics, such as free wave-packet evolution, motion in a linear potential, damped harmonic oscillator and interference dynamics.

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Classical viscid media are quite common in our everyday life. However, we are not used to find such media in quantum mechanics and much less to analyze their effects on the dynamics of quantum systems. Here we provide a Bohmian analysis of the friction dynamics led by hypothetical quantum viscid media, which will be simulated by means of the so-called Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian. As it is shown, this causal model enables a better understanding of phenomena, such as quantum localization (“quantum freezing”) or the quantum-to-classical transition. We have analyzed these phenomena in a series of paradigmatic situations of quantum mechanics, such as free wave-packet evolution, motion in a linear potential, damped harmonic oscillator and interference dynamics.
A nonlinear quantum–classical transition wave equation is proposed for dissipative systems within the Caldirola-Kanai model. Equivalence of this transition equation to a scaled Schrödinger equation is proved. The dissipative dynamics is then studied in terms of what we call scaled trajectories following the standard procedure used in Bohmian mechanics. These trajectories depend on a continuous parameter allowing us a smooth transition from Bohmian to classical trajectories. Arrival times and actual momentum distribution functions are also analyzed. The propagation of a Gaussian wave packet in a viscid medium under the presence of constant, linear and harmonic potentials is studied. The gradual decoherence process and localization are easily visualized and understood within this theoretical framework.
The ontological aspect of Bohmian mechanics, as a hidden-variable theory that provides us with an objective description of a quantum world without observers, is widely known. Yet its practicality is getting more and more acceptance and relevance, for it has proven to be an efficient and useful resource to tackle, explore, describe and explain such phenomena. This practical aspect emerges precisely when the pragmatic application of the formalism prevails over any other interpretational question, still a matter of debate and controversy. In this regard, the purpose here is to show and discuss how Bohmian mechanics emphasizes in a natural manner a series of dynamical features difficult to find out through other quantum approaches. This arises from the fact that Bohmian mechanics allows us to establish a direct link between the dynamics exhibited by quantum systems and the local variations of the quantum phase associated with their state. To illustrate these facts, simple models of two physically insightful quantum phenomena have been chosen, namely, the dispersion of a free Gaussian wave packet and Young-type two-slit interference. As it is shown, the outcomes from their analysis render a novel, alternative understanding of the dynamics displayed by these quantum phenomena in terms of the underlying local velocity field that connects the probability density with the quantum flux. This field, nothing but the so-called guidance condition in standard Bohmian mechanics, thus acquires a prominent role to understand quantum dynamics, as the mechanism responsible for such dynamics. This goes beyond the passive role typically assigned to this field in Bohmian mechanics, where traditionally trajectories and quantum potentials have received more attention instead.
Interference is one of the most fundamental features which characterizes quantum systems. Here we provide an exhaustive analysis of the interfere dynamics associated with wave-packet superpositions from both the standard quantum-mechanical perspective and the Bohmian one. From this analysis, clear and insightful pictures of the physics involved in these kind of processes are obtained, which are of general validity (i.e., regardless of the type of wave packets considered) in the understanding of more complex cases where interference is crucial (e.g., scattering problems, slit diffraction, quantum control scenarios or, even, multipartite interactions). In particular, we show how problems involving wave-packet interference can be mapped onto problems of wave packets scattered off potential barriers.
The problem of the dissipative systems from the quantum point of view has been of increasing interest, but it is far from having a satisfactory solution (1). There are many problems where the dissipation has an important role such as in quantum optics, in quantum analysis of fields, in quantum gravity (2). Dissipation can be observed in interactions between two systems, the observed system and another one often called reservoir or the bath, into which the energy flows via an irreversiblemanner (3). The system is embedded in some environmentwhich is in principle unknown. For an effective description of such systems, we can use time dependent Hamiltonians which in classical physics yield the proper equation of motion. If the friction is a linear funcion of the velocity with friction constant γ the Hamiltonian is the well known Caldirola Kanai Hamiltonian
Bohmian mechanics is a causal interpretation of quantum mechanics in which particles describe trajectories guided by the wave function. The dynamics in the vicinity of nodes of the wave function, usually called vortices, is regular if they are at rest. However, vortices generically move during time evolution of the system. We show that this movement is the origin of chaotic behavior of quantum trajectories. As an example, our general result is illustrated numerically in the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator. © EDP Sciences.