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Proceedings of the Physical Society

The Wave Mechanical Damped Harmonic Oscillator

K W H Stevens

Published Dec 1, 1958• 67 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The classical problem of a damped harmonic motion is formulated wave mechanically, with particular reference to the charge in a tuned circuit, and the electromagnetic field in a resonant cavity. Results in close agreement with the classical problem are obtained, without using perturbation theory. The classical frequency appears in the time dependence of the eigenfunctions and the classical damping appears as a decay in the eigenvalues. Zero point energy and thermal noise are discussed. The formulation is expected to break down, at very high frequencies, for tuned circuits and it is suggested that the same may be true for cavity oscillations and travelling electromagnetic waves.

DOI
10.1088/0370-1328/72/6/311

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The classical problem of a damped harmonic motion is formulated wave mechanically, with particular reference to the charge in a tuned circuit, and the electromagnetic field in a resonant cavity. Results in close agreement with the classical problem are obtained, without using perturbation theory. The classical frequency appears in the time dependence of the eigenfunctions and the classical damping appears as a decay in the eigenvalues. Zero point energy and thermal noise are discussed. The formulation is expected to break down, at very high frequencies, for tuned circuits and it is suggested that the same may be true for cavity oscillations and travelling electromagnetic waves.
The physics of quantum electromagnetism in an absorbing medium is that of a field of damped harmonic oscillators. Yet until recently the damped harmonic oscillator was not treated with the same kind of formalism used to describe quantum electrodynamics in a arbitrary medium. Here we use the techniques of macroscopic QED, based on the Huttner--Barnett reservoir, to describe the quantum mechanics of a damped oscillator. We calculate the thermal and zero-point energy of the oscillator for a range of damping values from zero to infinity. While both the thermal and zero-point energies decrease with damping, the energy stored in the oscillator at fixed temperature increases with damping, an effect that may be experimentally observable. As the results follow from canonical quantization, the uncertainty principle is valid for all damping levels.
The need for a quantum-mechanical formalism for systems with dissipation which is applicable to the radiation field of a cavity is discussed. Two methods that have been used in this connection are described. The first, which starts with the classical Newtonian equation of motion for a damped oscillator and applies the conventional formal quantization techniques, leads to an exact solution; but subsequent discussion shows that this method is invalid, the results being unacceptable from a quantum-mechanical viewpoint. The second method, which considers the interaction of two systems, the lossless oscillator and the loss mechanism, is adopted in the present article. No special model is used for the loss mechanism, but this mechanism is assumed to have a large number of densely-spaced energy states.The approximations with respect to the loss mechanism that underlie the concept of dissipation are discussed. These approximations are then applied to the analysis, and a differential equation for a coordinate operator of the harmonic oscillator is obtained which has the formal appearance of the Newtonian equation of motion for a driven damped harmonic oscillator, the driving term being an operator referring to the loss mechanism. The presence of the driving term is responsible for the difference between the present theory and that of the first method mentioned above. A solution of the differential equation for the coordinate operator is given explicitly. An examination of the physical significance of the solution shows that the driving term is responsible not only for the thermal fluctuations which are due to the loss mechanism, but also for the proper commutation relationship of the conjugate coordinates of the oscillator and for its zero-point fluctuations.A generalization of the solution to provide for a classical driving force and coupled atomic systems is given. The results are then restated in a form that refers to the loss mechanism only through the two parameters by which it is usually described---the dissipation constant and the temperature.
The present review is devoted to the study of certain aspects of anharmonic, time-dependent and damped oscillator(s) system using different theoretical techniques. A theoretical understanding of these systems is important for application in many problems in physics, mechanics and other fields. We discuss in detail the difficulties in the theoretical analysis of the problem. In particular we discuss here the regular, well-behaved perturbative solution, the large quantum number behaviour of anharmonic oscillator(s) using the technique of coherent states, exact solution of quantum anharmonic oscillators, the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a charged particle executing damped anharmonic oscillator motion using Krylov-Bogoliubov approximation method, use of invariants to obtain solution and coherent states of time-dependent oscillator(s), the derivation of perturbative frequencies of a damped coupled anharmonic oscillators system using suitable canonical transformation in the framework of Hamilton-Jacobi formalism and the quantisation and construction of coherent states of a damped oscillator using time-dependent operators.
Abstract By selecting a right generalized coordinate X, which contains the general solutions of the classical motion equation of a forced damped harmonic oscillator, we obtain a simple Hamiltonian which does not contain time for the oscillator such that Schrödinger equation and its solutions can be directly written out in X representation. The wave functin in x representation are also given with the help of the eigenfunctions of the operator X^ \hat X X^ in x representation. The evolution of ⟨x^⟩ \left\langle {\hat x} \right\rangle ⟨x^⟩ is the same as in the classical mechanics, and the uncertainty in position is independent of an external influence; one part of energy mean is quantized and attenuated, and the other is equal to the classical energy.
The problem of a harmonic oscillator with varying mass parameter is reduced by canonical transformation to the corresponding constant mass problem and is solved in the case of an exponentially decaying mass. The constructed canonical Hamiltonian has time-independent eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The cases of undercritical and overcritical damping are considered in detail. The Green function is calculated and the behaviour of coherent states is discussed. The theory is related to the case of a cavity oscillator with a decaying field as in threshold laser operation. In particular, the energy of the field is considered.
The development of a quantum-mechanical formalism for systems with dissipation that was presented in an earlier article, and intended mainly for application to the electromagnetic field in a cavity, is extended. The problem of the harmonic oscillator with dissipation is shown to be the same as that of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal reservoir, and the need of the formalism to contain the appropriate statistical mechanics is discussed. The derivation of relationships which permit the calculation of all moments of the oscillator coordinate and momentum provides the necessary extension of the theory. The formal resemblance of the completed theory to that of classical Brownian motion, some differences due to quantum mechanics, and the fact that certain fundamental relationships which are assumed in the latter are derived in the present analysis, are pointed out. The application of the theory is illustrated by the consideration of three problems: the proof of Ott's formula, and the derivation of both the probability density and energy distribution of the oscillator in equilibrium with a thermal reservoir.