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Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics

Dynamics of an anharmonic oscillator that is harmonically coupled to a many-body system and the notion of an appropriate heat bath

Donald P. Visco, Surajit Sen

Published Jan 1, 1998• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report extensive numerical studies of the dynamics of a classical particle in an anharmonic one-dimensional potential while it is harmonically coupled to three different many-particle systems. The studies address the comparatively simpler dynamical problem when the energy of the anharmonic oscillator is sufficiently low. The first model is one in which the many-particle system is a chain of harmonic oscillators that have nearest-neighbor harmonic interactions. The anharmonic oscillator is connected to every harmonic oscillator via harmonic springs. The second model is identical to the first except that each oscillator is subjected to an additional one-body harmonic potential. The third model is identical to the second except that the nearest-neighbor couplings between the individual harmonic oscillators are absent, i.e., the oscillators are decoupled with respect to one another. In the first model we find that the lowest frequency of the anharmonic oscillator, while possessing a lower bound, increases as $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\propto}\sqrt{\mathrm{NK}},$ where $N$ is the number of oscillators in the bath and $K$ is the force constant describing the strength of interaction between the anharmonic oscillator and the interacting harmonic many-body system. In the second model we find aspects of dynamical correlations as seen in the canonical ensemble and a dominant frequency that increases as $\sqrt{\mathrm{NK}}.$ We recover the dynamical correlations of the anharmonic oscillator as obtained within the framework of a canonical ensemble [S. Sen, R. S. Sinkovits, and S. Chakravarti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4855 (1996)] in the third model for sufficiently many harmonic oscillators. We comment briefly on an alternate way to correctly model heat baths for numerical studies on the dynamics of physical systems using canonical ensembles.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.57.224

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The present review is devoted to the study of certain aspects of anharmonic, time-dependent and damped oscillator(s) system using different theoretical techniques. A theoretical understanding of these systems is important for application in many problems in physics, mechanics and other fields. We discuss in detail the difficulties in the theoretical analysis of the problem. In particular we discuss here the regular, well-behaved perturbative solution, the large quantum number behaviour of anharmonic oscillator(s) using the technique of coherent states, exact solution of quantum anharmonic oscillators, the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a charged particle executing damped anharmonic oscillator motion using Krylov-Bogoliubov approximation method, use of invariants to obtain solution and coherent states of time-dependent oscillator(s), the derivation of perturbative frequencies of a damped coupled anharmonic oscillators system using suitable canonical transformation in the framework of Hamilton-Jacobi formalism and the quantisation and construction of coherent states of a damped oscillator using time-dependent operators.

Fortschritte der Physik/Progress of Physics•Jan 1, 1989•11 citations
We report extensive numerical studies of the dynamics of a classical particle in an anharmonic one-dimensional potential while it is harmonically coupled to three different many-particle systems. The studies address the comparatively simpler dynamical problem when the energy of the anharmonic oscillator is sufficiently low. The first model is one in which the many-particle system is a chain of harmonic oscillators that have nearest-neighbor harmonic interactions. The anharmonic oscillator is connected to every harmonic oscillator via harmonic springs. The second model is identical to the first except that each oscillator is subjected to an additional one-body harmonic potential. The third model is identical to the second except that the nearest-neighbor couplings between the individual harmonic oscillators are absent, i.e., the oscillators are decoupled with respect to one another. In the first model we find that the lowest frequency of the anharmonic oscillator, while possessing a lower bound, increases as \ensuremathω\ensuremath∝NK,\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\propto}\sqrt{\mathrm{NK}},\ensuremathω\ensuremath∝NK​, where NNN is the number of oscillators in the bath and KKK is the force constant describing the strength of interaction between the anharmonic oscillator and the interacting harmonic many-body system. In the second model we find aspects of dynamical correlations as seen in the canonical ensemble and a dominant frequency that increases as NK.\sqrt{\mathrm{NK}}.NK​. We recover the dynamical correlations of the anharmonic oscillator as obtained within the framework of a canonical ensemble [S. Sen, R. S. Sinkovits, and S. Chakravarti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4855 (1996)] in the third model for sufficiently many harmonic oscillators. We comment briefly on an alternate way to correctly model heat baths for numerical studies on the dynamics of physical systems using canonical ensembles.
Abstract The thermodynamic implications for the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems are to date largely unexplored, especially for quantum many-body systems. In this paper we investigate the paradigmatic case of an array of nearest-neighbor coupled quantum harmonic oscillators interacting with a thermal bath and subjected to a quench of the inter-oscillator coupling strength. We study the work done on the system and its irreversible counterpart, and characterize analytically the fluctuation relations of the ensuing out-of-equilibrium dynamics. Finally, we showcase an interesting functional link between the dissipated work produced across a two-element chain and their degree of general quantum correlations. Our results suggest that, for the specific model at hand, the non-classical features of a harmonic system can influence significantly its thermodynamics.
The dynamics of an initially excital Gaussian wave packet (harmonic oscillator coherent state, HOCS) in a general one-dimensional anharmonic system is studied analytically with the aid of a second quantization formalism for times shorter than a classical oscillation period. The initial state population probability PQ(t), its classical counterpart PC(t), and the overlap probability PQC(t) between a time evolved wave packet and a classically moving Gaussian with stationary shape are calculated in order to analyze the spreading of the wave packet. It was found that, in general, PQ(t) and PC(t) agree very well if the potential energy function has no strongly changing low order derivatives. This agreement is held even if the wave packet spreads drastically within the time scale considered as can be demonstrated by analyzing PQC(t). The analytical expressions for PQ(t), PC(t), and PQC(t) are applied to a dissociative third-order oscillator and a strongly anharmonic fourth-order oscillator. While for a harmonic system, the initial decay time of PQ(t) and PC(t) (which are identical in this case) are only dependent on the energy expectation value 〈H〉 with respect to the initial HOCS, differences up to an order of magnitude occur for HOCS with the same energy in the model systems.
A system of noninteracting classical spins coupled to the modes of a chain of one-dimensional classical harmonic oscillators via −S z Σc k x k was investigated to see whether the spin-bath coupling could relax the spins toward equilibrium. We considered two different cases for the initial conditions on the classical harmonic oscillator variables when we took the harmonic oscillator bath variable averages for the total spin components. In the first case, the harmonic oscillators were initially in equilibrium while they did not recognize the presence of the spin, whereas in the second case, the spins were in equilibrium and did recognize the presence of the spin. For the first case, the bath variable averages of the x- and the y-components of the total spin showed that the effective angular velocity transiently slowed down after an initial increase; then, it recovered its initial angular velocity continually. In the second case, the effective angular velocity was fixed. For both cases, the z-component of the total spin vector remained constant. If the x- and the y-components of the single spins were randomly distributed, we would get equilibrium values. For the z-components of single spins, unless they are at equilibrium from the beginning, they do not attain equilibrium.
A field theoretical formulation of the rather easy problem of N identical, one-dimensional bosons, interacting pairwise via harmonic oscillator potentials of equal force constants is given, in a way similar to the way the nonlinear Schrodinger model provides a field theoretical formulation of a one-dimensional, delta -function Bose gas. The nonlinear integro-differential equation obtained for the complex scalar field of the model is treated classically, and solved in the semiclassical limit of a large number of particles. Working in the centre of mass frame of the field, a sequence of operators that would raise or lower the energy of a state by definite amounts without changing its particle number are constructed from certain bilinear expressions in the field. These operators have, in the limit of a large number of particles, commutation relations similar to those of the Fourier modes of a compact free field, except that the first mode is missing as a result of the fact that the field in the centre of mass frame is subject to the obvious constraint that its centre of mass always coincides with the coordinate origin. The quantum states can be labelled by the total centre of mass momentum, and the quasi-particle numbers in each of the independent oscillator modes. The energy spectrum of the system is calculated, giving the same results as the exact, quantum-mechanical N-body analysis.
Several techniques to solve a hierarchical set of equations of motion for propagating a reduced density matrix coupled to a thermal bath have been developed in recent years. This is either done using the path integral technique as in the original proposal by Tanimura and Kubo [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 58, 101 (1998)] or by the use of stochastic fields as done by Yan et al. [Chem. Phys. Lett. 395, 216 (2004)]. Based on the latter ansatz a compact derivation of the hierarchy using a decomposition of the spectral density function is given in the present contribution. The method is applied to calculate the time evolution of the reduced density matrix describing the motion in a harmonic, an anharmonic, and two coupled oscillators where each system is coupled to a thermal bath. Calculations to several orders in the system-bath coupling with two different truncations of the hierarchy are performed. The respective density matrices are used to calculate the time evolution of various system properties and the results are compared and discussed with a special focus on the convergence with respect to the truncation scheme applied.
The present review is devoted to the study of certain aspects of anharmonic, time-dependent and damped oscillator(s) system using different theoretical techniques. A theoretical understanding of these systems is important for application in many problems in physics, mechanics and other fields. We discuss in detail the difficulties in the theoretical analysis of the problem. In particular we discuss here the regular, well-behaved perturbative solution, the large quantum number behaviour of anharmonic oscillator(s) using the technique of coherent states, exact solution of quantum anharmonic oscillators, the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a charged particle executing damped anharmonic oscillator motion using Krylov-Bogoliubov approximation method, use of invariants to obtain solution and coherent states of time-dependent oscillator(s), the derivation of perturbative frequencies of a damped coupled anharmonic oscillators system using suitable canonical transformation in the framework of Hamilton-Jacobi formalism and the quantisation and construction of coherent states of a damped oscillator using time-dependent operators.