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Physical Review A

Harmonic oscillators in relativistic quantum mechanics

F. Masafumi Toyama, Yukihisa Nogami

Published Feb 1, 1999• 37 citations
Publisher

Abstract

For the Dirac equation in one space dimension, we examine the possibility of harmonic oscillator (HO) potentials. A HO potential is such that it has only bound states and the energy levels are equally spaced. Regarding their Lorentz transformation properties, there are three types of potentials for the Dirac equation: vector, scalar, and pseudoscalar. HO potentials are possible for the scalar and pseudoscalar types, but not for the vector type. We show how HO potentials can be constructed by means of the ``inverse scattering method.'' We also examine the behavior of a wave packet in the HO potentials so constructed. The behavior is, in most of the cases, very similar to that of Schr\"odinger's coherent wave packet of the nonrelativistic harmonic oscillator.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.59.1056

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For the Dirac equation in one space dimension, we examine the possibility of harmonic oscillator (HO) potentials. A HO potential is such that it has only bound states and the energy levels are equally spaced. Regarding their Lorentz transformation properties, there are three types of potentials for the Dirac equation: vector, scalar, and pseudoscalar. HO potentials are possible for the scalar and pseudoscalar types, but not for the vector type. We show how HO potentials can be constructed by means of the ``inverse scattering method.'' We also examine the behavior of a wave packet in the HO potentials so constructed. The behavior is, in most of the cases, very similar to that of Schr"odinger's coherent wave packet of the nonrelativistic harmonic oscillator.
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
A one-dimensional wave function is assumed whose logarithm is a quadratic form in the configuration variable with time-dependent coefficients. This trial function allows for general time-dependent solutions both of the harmonic oscillator (HO) and the reversed harmonic oscillator (RO). For the HO, apart from the standard coherent states, a further class of solutions is derived with a time-dependent width parameter. The width of the corresponding probability density fluctuates, or "breathes" periodically with the oscillator frequency. In the case of the RO, one also obtains normalized wave packets which, however, show diffusion through exponential broadening with time. At the initial time, the integration constants give rise to complete sets of coherent states in the three cases considered. The results are applicable to the quantum mechanics of the Kepler-Coulomb problem when transformed to the model of a four-dimensional harmonic oscillator with a constraint. In the classical limit, as was shown recently, the wave packets of the RO basis generate the hyperbolic Kepler orbits, and, by means of analytic continuation, the elliptic orbits are also obtained quantum mechanically.
The importance of the energy spectrum of bound states and their restrictions in quantum mechanics due to the different methods have been used for calculating and determining the limit of them. Comparison of Schrödinger-like equation obtained by Dirac equation with the nonrelativistic solvable models is the most efficient method. By this technique, the exact relativistic solutions of Dirac equation for Hartmann and Ring-Shaped Oscillator Potentials are accessible, when the scalar potential is equal to the vector potential. Using solvable nonrelativistic quantum mechanics systems as a basic model and considering the physical conditions provide the changes in the restrictions of relativistic parameters based on the nonrelativistic definitions of parameters.