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Physical Review A

Determination of occupation probabilities from time-averaged position distributions

Thomas Richter, Alfred Wünsche

Published Apr 1, 1996• 28 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that the occupation probabilities of the energy eigenstates excited in a wave packet moving in an arbitrary one-dimensional potential can be determined directly from the time-averaged position distribution. The sampling functions are the derivative of the product of the usual eigenfunctions and the linearly independent (non-normalizable) solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation for the same energy eigenvalue. This is the same structure as those for the harmonic-oscillator case.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.53.r1974

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We show that the occupation probabilities of the energy eigenstates excited in a wave packet moving in an arbitrary one-dimensional potential can be determined directly from the time-averaged position distribution. The sampling functions are the derivative of the product of the usual eigenfunctions and the linearly independent (non-normalizable) solutions of the Schr"odinger equation for the same energy eigenvalue. This is the same structure as those for the harmonic-oscillator case.
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We discuss nonspreading wave packets in one dimensional Schrödinger equation. We derive general rules for constructing nonspreading wave packets from a general potential V(x,t)\textmd{V}(x,t)V(x,t). The essential ingredients of a nonspreading wave packet, the shape function f(x)f(x)f(x), the motion d(t)d(t)d(t), the phase function ϕ(x,t)ϕ(x,t)ϕ(x,t) are derived. Since the form of the shape of a nonspreading wave packet does not change in time, the shape equation should be time independent. We show that the shape function f(x)f(x)f(x) is the eigenfunction of the time independent Schrödinger equation with an effective potential VeffV_{\textmd{eff}}Veff​ and an energy EeffE_{\textmd{eff}}Eeff​. We derive nonspreading wave packets found by Schrödinger, Senitzky, and Berry and Balazs as examples. We show that most stationary potentials can only support stationary nonspreading wave packets. We show how to construct moving nonspreading wave packets from time dependent potentials, which drive nonspreading wave packets into an arbitrary motion.
A motion of a Gaussian wave packet of a single electron in a harmonic potential is obtained by solving the time dependent Schrödinger equation analytically. The analytic formula of the phase of the wave function which depends on both time and space is also presented explicitly. The probability density of the wave packet moves changing its width and central position periodically. The period of the change of the width is half of that of the central position. The interpretation of these periodic changes in terms of the Green's function which can be derived by the path integration formulation is also discussed.
Abstract We consider the time-independent Schrödinger equation for the harmonic oscillator potential and determine its bound states and energy levels in one spatial dimension using two approaches: the algebraic and the analytic method. Using the former, we introduce ladder operators: the annihilation and creation operators, as well as the occupation-number operator, and determine the ground state of the harmonic oscillator to be a Gaussian wave packet, while the latter method yields the general bound state solutions in terms of the Hermite polynomials. We further discuss the zero-point energy and uncertainty relation for the quantum harmonic oscillator and make a comparison to the classical harmonic oscillator. Finally, we examine the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator, which leads us to the description of systems with multiple degrees of freedom via the tensor product
We reexamine the general solution of a Schr\"odinger equation in the presence of a time-dependent linear potential in configuration space based on the Lewis-Riesenfeld framework. For comparison, we also solve the problem in momentum space and then Fourier transform the solution to get the general wave function. Appropriately choosing the weight function in the latter method, we can obtain the same wave function as the former method. It is found that a non-Hermitian time-dependent linear invariant can be used to obtain Gaussian-type wave-packet solutions of the time-dependent system. This operator is a specific linear combination of the initial momentum and initial position operators. This fact indicates that the constants of integration such as the initial position and initial momentum that determine the classical motion play important roles in the time-dependent quantum system. The eigenfunction of the linear invariant is interpreted as a wave packet with a ``center of mass'' moving along the classical trajectory, while the ratio between the coefficients of the initial position and initial momentum determines the width of the wave packet.