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Annals of Physics

Complex Trajectories in the Quartic Oscillator and Its Semiclassical Coherent-State Propagator

Ademir Luiz Xavier Junior, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar

Published Dec 1, 1996• 70 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The semiclassical approximation of the coherent-state propagator requires the computation of complex trajectories satisfying special boundary conditions. In this paper we present a method for the determination of such trajectories for one-dimensional polynomial potentials. We also compute the semiclassical propagator for the case V ( q )= λq 2 /2+ βq 4 and compare the results with an “exact” calculation.

DOI
10.1006/aphy.1996.0141

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The semiclassical approximation of the coherent-state propagator requires the computation of complex trajectories satisfying special boundary conditions. In this paper we present a method for the determination of such trajectories for one-dimensional polynomial potentials. We also compute the semiclassical propagator for the case V ( q )= λq 2 /2+ βq 4 and compare the results with an “exact” calculation.
A semiclassical formula for the coherent-state propagator requires the determination of specific classical paths inhabiting a complex phase-space and governed by a Hamiltonian flux. Such trajectories are constrained to special boundary conditions which render their determination difficult by common methods. In this paper we present a new method based on Runge-Kutta integrator for a quick, easy and accurate determination of these trajectories. Using nonlinear one dimensional systems we show that the semiclassical formula is highly accurate as compared to its exact counterpart. Further, we clarify how the phase of the semiclassical approximation is correctly retrieved during the time evolution.
A semiclassical formula for the coherent-state propagator requires the determination of specific classical paths inhabiting a complex phase-space and governed by a Hamiltonian flux. Such trajectories are constrained to special boundary conditions which render their determination difficult by common methods. In this paper we present a new method based on Runge-Kutta integrator for a quick, easy and accurate determination of these trajectories. Using nonlinear one dimensional systems we show that the semiclassical formula is highly accurate as compared to its exact counterpart. Further, we clarify how the phase of the semiclassical approximation is correctly retrieved during the time evolution.
The semiclassical approximation to the coherent state propagator requires complex classical trajectories in order to satisfy the associated boundary conditions, but finding these trajectories in practice is a difficult task that may compromise the applicability of the approximation. In this work several approximations to the coherent state propagator are derived that make use only of real trajectories, which are easier to handle and have a more direct physical interpretation. It is verified in a particular example that these real trajectories approximations may have excellent accuracy.
We introduce a very general approximation to the quantum propagator that is based on the assumption that the most important contributions to the complex semiclassical propagator evolve from real classical trajectories that almost satisfy the desired boundary conditions. Our results for two systems --- the autocorrelation function for the quartic anharmonic oscillator and the photodissociation spectrum of CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​ --- show that these nearly real contributions yield an excellent approximation to the quantum propagator for quite long times. The approach taken here is applicable to problems with many (e.g., several hundred) degrees of freedom, and hence promises to provide an accurate and useful representation of the quantum dynamics for a wide variety of physically interesting systems.
We compute the semiclassical coherent-state propagator for a particle moving in a one-dimensional box. In this semiclassical approach complex trajectories are stationary paths of the propagator's asymptotic expansion and play a fundamental role. A second semiclassical approximation is also introduced, which makes use of real trajectories only. An application to a seemingly simple system, the infinite well, is carried out completely for the diagonal elements, and a comparison is made among the three possible methods, those based on complex and real trajectories and the ``exact case'' that is determined by decomposing the propagator into its eigenstates. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
The semiclassical limit of the coherent state propagator $⟨{\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{''}}\ensuremath{\mid}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}i\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}T∕\ensuremath{\hbar}}\ensuremath{\mid}{\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{'}}⟩$ involves complex classical trajectories of the Hamiltonian $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{H}(\mathbf{u},\mathbf{v})=⟨\mathbf{v}\ensuremath{\mid}\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}\ensuremath{\mid}\mathbf{u}⟩$ satisfying $\mathbf{u}(0)={\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and $\mathbf{v}(T)={\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{''}}*$. In this work we study mostly the case ${\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{'}}={\mathbf{z}}^{\ensuremath{''}}$. The propagator is then the return probability amplitude of a wave packet. We show that a plot of the exact return probability brings out the quantal images of the classical periodic orbits. Then we compare the exact return probability with its semiclassical approximation for a soft chaotic system with two degrees of freedom. We find two situations where classical trajectories satisfying the correct boundary conditions must be excluded from the semiclassical formula. The first occurs when the contribution of the trajectory to the propagator becomes exponentially large as $\ensuremath{\hbar}$ goes to zero. The second occurs when the contributing trajectories undergo bifurcations. Close to the bifurcation the semiclassical formula diverges. More interestingly, in the example studied, after the bifurcation, where more than one trajectory satisfying the boundary conditions exist, only one of them in fact contributes to the semiclassical formula, a phenomenon closely related to Stokes lines. When the contributions of these trajectories are filtered out, the semiclassical results show excellent agreement with the exact calculations.