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Physical Review Letters

Semiclassical path-integral quantization of nonintegrable Hamiltonian systems

D. Wintgen

Published Oct 17, 1988• 89 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The periodic-orbit quantization approach of Gutzwiller, which is a semiclassical approximation of Feynman's path-integral formalism, is used to calculate finite-resolution densities of states for a Hamiltonian system whose classical motion is dominated by chaos, viz., the hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field. In spectral regions where the resolution obtained is larger than the mean level spacing, it is possible to extract approximate eigenvalues of the quantized system. The particular role of stable periodic orbits and their direct quantization are elaborated. Remarkable agreement with exact quantum calculations results.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.61.1803

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The periodic-orbit quantization approach of Gutzwiller, which is a semiclassical approximation of Feynman's path-integral formalism, is used to calculate finite-resolution densities of states for a Hamiltonian system whose classical motion is dominated by chaos, viz., the hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field. In spectral regions where the resolution obtained is larger than the mean level spacing, it is possible to extract approximate eigenvalues of the quantized system. The particular role of stable periodic orbits and their direct quantization are elaborated. Remarkable agreement with exact quantum calculations results.
Gutzwiller's trace formula has a central place in quantum chaos because it provides semiclassical approximations for quantum energy levels in classically chaotic systems by linking them to classical periodic orbits. In this didactic article, we discuss a derivation of the trace formula starting from the Feynman path integral. We then describe how the trace formula is used to explain universal features in the distribution of the quantum energy levels that are described by random matrix theory, and we give an overview of related work.
We present a new method for the semiclassical quantization of classically integrable as well as nonintegrable systems. The method is based on the semiclassical approximation of the equilibrium density matrix, using classical trajectories on the upside down potential surface. Periodic orbits do not play any special role. Explicit results are given for the case of the classically chaotic potential kx2y2/2{\mathrm{kx}}^{2}{y}^{2}/2kx2y2/2.
We present here a study of the quantum phase space localization (Wigner functions) in dependence of semiclassical quantization rules for the hydrogen atom in magnetic fields. We consider primarily two energy regions. In the first the corresponding classical system is near-integrable and in the second near fully chaotic. We study phase space localization (scars) close to stable and unstable trajectories, tori and the invariant manifold associated with the almost circular, unstable periodic trajectory. We find that these classical structures are an important element for the structure of the wavefunctions and the semiclassical quantization predictions are in good agreement with the quantal results.
In the framework of Gutzwiller's theory for nonintegrable Hamiltonian systems the diagonal part of the Green's function is expressed as a sum over classical trajectories which are closed in configuration space. We can distinguish two types of recurrent trajectories, those which are in the neighborhood of a periodic orbit and those whose lengths vanish as the allotted time continuously approaches zero. For the hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field we identify both types of orbits in the path-generating function, i.e, the Fourier transform of the Green's function with respect to 1/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}. Projections of the Green's function onto coherent states eliminate the contributions from recurrent but nonperiodic orbits. The corresponding phase-space representation of the path-generating function shows a strong localization along the classical periodic orbits.
Harmonic inversion is introduced as a powerful tool for both the analysis of quantum spectra and semiclassical periodic orbit quantization. The method allows to circumvent the uncertainty principle of the conventional Fourier transform and to extract dynamical information from quantum spectra which has been unattainable before, such as bifurcations of orbits, the uncovering of hidden ghost orbits in complex phase space, and the direct observation of symmetry breaking effects. The method also solves the fundamental convergence problems in semiclassical periodic orbit theories -- for both the Berry-Tabor formula and Gutzwiller's trace formula -- and can therefore be applied as a novel technique for periodic orbit quantization, i.e., to calculate semiclassical eigenenergies from a finite set of classical periodic orbits. The advantage of periodic orbit quantization by harmonic inversion is the universality and wide applicability of the method, which will be demonstrated in this work for v...