Physical Review Letters

Classical Analog of Pure-State Quantum Dynamics

Charles Jaffé, Sheldon Kanfer, Paul W. Brumer

Published Jan 7, 1985• 34 citations

Abstract

We introduce an analog, in classical phase space, of the fundamental building block of time dependence in quantum mechanics, i.e., the superposition state. Applications to two-level systems and quantum beats illustrate this conceptually pleasing phase-space picture of the phase interference between energy eigenstates which comprises pure-state quantum dynamics.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.54.8

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