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Physical Review A

Wave equation for a dissipative force quadratic in velocity

Mohsen Razavy

Published Jul 1, 1987• 8 citations

Abstract

Some recent works on the path-integral formulation of nonconservative forces quadratic in velocity are examined critically. It is argued that the ambiguity resulting from ordering the operators in the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian for this force is more serious than it is usually believed, and that one can construct a number of Hermitian Hamiltonians all satisfying Ehrenfest's theorem, but forming a set of noncommuting operators. A similar problem is encountered in the ordering of the Lagrangian for the path-integral approach. This is in addition to a number of well-known difficulties such as violation of the position-velocity uncertainty, and the differences between the invariances of the equation of motion, and the Lagrangian. An alternative way is suggested in which the damping force is replaced by a purely time-dependent term which produces the same classical motion, thus avoiding the above-mentioned difficulties. Using this formulation, wave functions and time-dependent energies are found for a quadratically damped harmonic oscillator, and for a particle moving in a dissipative medium when the friction is proportional to an arbitrary power of velocity.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.36.482

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Some recent works on the path-integral formulation of nonconservative forces quadratic in velocity are examined critically. It is argued that the ambiguity resulting from ordering the operators in the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian for this force is more serious than it is usually believed, and that one can construct a number of Hermitian Hamiltonians all satisfying Ehrenfest's theorem, but forming a set of noncommuting operators. A similar problem is encountered in the ordering of the Lagrangian for the path-integral approach. This is in addition to a number of well-known difficulties such as violation of the position-velocity uncertainty, and the differences between the invariances of the equation of motion, and the Lagrangian. An alternative way is suggested in which the damping force is replaced by a purely time-dependent term which produces the same classical motion, thus avoiding the above-mentioned difficulties. Using this formulation, wave functions and time-dependent energies are found for a quadratically damped harmonic oscillator, and for a particle moving in a dissipative medium when the friction is proportional to an arbitrary power of velocity.

For a free falling particle moving in a media which has quadratic velocity force effect on the particle, two equivalent constants of motion, with units of energy, two Lagrangians, and two Hamiltonians are deduced. These quantities describe the dynamics of the same classical system. However, their quantization and the associated statistical mechanics (for an ensemble of particles) describe two completely different quantum and statistical systems. This is shown at first order in the dissipative parameter.

Phenomenological Equations of Motion for Dissipative Systems Lagrangian Hamiltonian and Hamilton-Jacobi Formulation of the Classical Dissipative Systems Noether's Theorem and Non-Noether Conservation Laws Dissipative Forces Derived from Many-Body Problems A Particle Coupled to a Field and the Damped Motion of a Central Particle Coupled to a Heat Bath Quantization of Dissipative Systems in General and of Explicitly Time-Dependent Hamiltonians in Particular Density Matrix and the Wigner Distribution Function for Damped Systems Path Integral Formulation of a Damped Harmonic Oscillator Quantization of the Motion of an Infinite Chain Heisenberg's Equations of Motion for a Particle Coupled to a Heat Bath Quantum Mechanical Models of Dissipative Systems and the Concept of Optical Potential.

Two types of Hamiltonians are investigated which describe quantum mechanically a particle moving subject to a linear viscous force under the influence of a conservative force: the conventional explicitly time-dependent one and an alternative class of nonlinear Hamiltonians. In the latter group we propose a new form. By Ehrenfest’s theorem the expectation values of the operators of physical observables correspond to the classical quantities. For all Schrödinger equations we derive and discuss wavepacket, wave, stationary, and pseudostationary solutions of force free motion, free fall, and harmonic oscillator.

A wave equation formulation of the problem of quantum tunneling in a dissipative medium is developed by considering a many-body system in which the central particle is subject to an arbitrary force law, and at the same time is coupled to a bath of noninteracting harmonic oscillators. For the motion of the central particle it is possible to obtain an effective Lagrangian and Hamiltonian by eliminating the degrees of freedom of the oscillators. However both of these operators are nonlocal, and it is difficult to derive a wave equation for this motion. As an alternative method one can write a many-body Schrödinger equation for the whole system, and then eliminate the wave functions of all of the oscillators. This result is a many-channel Schrödinger equation for the motion of the central particle. By truncating this set of coupled equations, one can solve the problem for different force laws. In particular, in this work, the cases of dissipative tunneling, hopping, and quantum coherence are studied in detail. It is also shown how this approach can be generalized to multidimensional dissipative systems.