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Journal of Mathematical Physics

The concept of a time-of-sojourn operator and spreading of wave packets

Wojciech Jaworski

Published Jul 1, 1989• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The concept of sojourn time and a sojourn time operator, aimed at describing the length of time spent by a quantum mechanical system in a given subspace of states, is investigated. A general rigorous definition to the sojourn time operator is given and some of its properties are studied. In particular, it is shown that the usual Born’s probability interpretation of the associated spectral measure yields strange, if not paradoxical, results, resembling the well-known quantum mechanical Zeno paradox. Also a specific example of a free nonrelativistic particle is considered. Here it is proven that the probability Pt(Ω) of the particle being present in a volume Ω at time t cannot vanish on a set of t having nonzero measure. This implies that the sojourn time in Ω never vanishes, and that zero is never an eigenvalue of the sojourn time operator. It is also shown that for a very general class of sets Ω, including all bounded sets, the sojourn time turns out to be bounded with a bound independent of the initial state of the particle. Correspondingly, the sojourn time operator turns out to be a bounded one.

DOI
10.1063/1.528282

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We show that a useful concept of the time spent by a quantum-mechanical particle in a given spatial region can be expressed in terms of a Hermitian sojourn time operator. Mean values of this operator give the mean sojourn time (dwell time) of the particle. We show that the sojourn time operators occur in a natural way in first-order perturbation theory for the barrier perturbed by any finite-range potential. The perturbed S operator, and also the effect of the perturbation on the change of observables due to the scattering, are, to a first-order approximation, fully expressible in terms of sojourn time operators. We anticipate that this result can be generalized to the case when the translational motion of the tunneling particle is weakly coupled to additional degrees of freedom. As a specific example of such a system, we explicitly reconsider the Larmor clock, originally proposed as a device measuring interaction times. We show that the change of the spin components, to a first-order approximation, is indeed fully expressible in terms of a sojourn time operator. In particular, when set as a clock, the system measures mean values of the sojourn time operator or real parts of some of its matrix elements.

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The concept of sojourn time and a sojourn time operator, aimed at describing the length of time spent by a quantum mechanical system in a given subspace of states, is investigated. A general rigorous definition to the sojourn time operator is given and some of its properties are studied. In particular, it is shown that the usual Born’s probability interpretation of the associated spectral measure yields strange, if not paradoxical, results, resembling the well-known quantum mechanical Zeno paradox. Also a specific example of a free nonrelativistic particle is considered. Here it is proven that the probability Pt(Ω) of the particle being present in a volume Ω at time t cannot vanish on a set of t having nonzero measure. This implies that the sojourn time in Ω never vanishes, and that zero is never an eigenvalue of the sojourn time operator. It is also shown that for a very general class of sets Ω, including all bounded sets, the sojourn time turns out to be bounded with a bound independent of the initial state of the particle. Correspondingly, the sojourn time operator turns out to be a bounded one.
We show that a useful concept of the time spent by a quantum-mechanical particle in a given spatial region can be expressed in terms of a Hermitian sojourn time operator. Mean values of this operator give the mean sojourn time (dwell time) of the particle. We show that the sojourn time operators occur in a natural way in first-order perturbation theory for the barrier perturbed by any finite-range potential. The perturbed S operator, and also the effect of the perturbation on the change of observables due to the scattering, are, to a first-order approximation, fully expressible in terms of sojourn time operators. We anticipate that this result can be generalized to the case when the translational motion of the tunneling particle is weakly coupled to additional degrees of freedom. As a specific example of such a system, we explicitly reconsider the Larmor clock, originally proposed as a device measuring interaction times. We show that the change of the spin components, to a first-order approximation, is indeed fully expressible in terms of a sojourn time operator. In particular, when set as a clock, the system measures mean values of the sojourn time operator or real parts of some of its matrix elements.
Abstract We present a step by step introduction to the notion of time-delay in classical and quantum mechanics, with the aim of clarifying its foundation at a conceptual level. In doing so, we motivate the introduction of the concepts of “fuzzy” and “free-flight” sojourn times that we use to provide the most general possible definition for the quantum time-delay, valid for simple and multichannel scattering systems, with or without conditions on the observation of the scattering particle, and for incoming wave packets whose energy can be smeared out or sharply peaked (fixed energy). We conclude our conceptual analysis by presenting what we think is the right interpretation of the concepts of sojourn and delay times in quantum mechanics, explaining why, in ultimate analysis, they should not be called “times.”
We present a step by step introduction to the notion of time-delay in classical and quantum mechanics, with the aim of clarifying its foundation at a conceptual level. In doing so, we motivate the introduction of the concepts of “fuzzy” and “free-flight” sojourn times that we use to provide the most general possible definition for the quantum time-delay, valid for simple and multichannel scattering systems, with or without conditions on the observation of the scattering particle, and for incoming wave packets whose energy can be smeared out or sharply peaked (fixed energy). We conclude our conceptual analysis by presenting what we think is the right interpretation of the concepts of sojourn and delay times in quantum mechanics, explaining why, in ultimate analysis, they should not be called “times.”
We present a step by step introduction to the notion of time-delay in classical and quantum mechanics, with the aim of clarifying its foundation at a conceptual level. In doing so, we motivate the introduction of the concepts of "fuzzy" and "free-flight" sojourn times, that we use to provide the most general possible definition for the quantum time-delay, valid for simple and multichannel scattering systems, with or without conditions on the observation of the scattering particle, and for incoming wave packets whose energy can be smeared out or sharply peaked (fixed energy). We conclude our conceptual analysis by presenting what we think is the right interpretation of the concepts of sojourn and delay times in quantum mechanics, explaining why, in ultimate analysis, they shouldn't be called "times".
A general formulation of the sojourn-time operator approach is presented, valid for arbitrary scattering systems and free of restrictions to one-dimensional systems present in the previous work of the authors. We show how first-order perturbation theory can be consistently formulated in terms of appropriate sojourn-time operators. Both time-dependent and time-independent perturbations, including coupling between translation and internal degrees of freedom, are considered. The mean values of these Hermitian sojourn-time operators give the mean sojourn time (dwell time) of the particle in spatial regions or, more generally, in certain subspaces of the state space of the system defined by sets of commuting observables. The perturbed S operator and also the effect of the perturbation on the change of observables due to the scattering are, to a first-order approximation, fully expressible in terms of these operators. We also show that this approach provides a unified treatment of the various idealized one-dimensional systems, which have frequently been employed in the debate on tunneling and interaction times. In particular, we provide some insight into the role of complex times, which appear as combinations of matrix elements of the sojourn-time operators.
Abstract In the existing literature, a sojourn time of a discrete-time quantum walk is not a random variable. To solve this problem, we redefine the sojourn time of a quantum walk where its coin evolution operator can be general. We first discuss a class of quantum walks governed by flip operators. We cumulatively calculate how much time a walker spends in the set of non-negative integers up to a fixed evolution time. Whether a walker makes a left or right evolution, we add up the staying times as long as it stays within the target set. We define a sojourn time as the total amount of the staying times. Compared with existing definitions, we show that this definition can satisfy the probability normalization. From this, we define a random variable about the sojourn time and discuss its probability distribution. We build a mathematical model to characterize a sojourn time that is embedded into a quantum walk. These results are also valid for a class of quantum walks governed by general coin operators. We also give a method for calculating the sojourn time and analyze the shape features of its probability distribution.