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Physical Review A

Violation of the correspondence principle: Breakdown of the Bohm-Newton trajectory correspondence in a macroscopic system

Boon Leong Lan

Published Feb 11, 2000• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The trajectory predicted by Bohm's quantum equation of motion, using an initially angle-localized minimum-uncertainty Gaussian wave packet, is compared with the trajectory predicted by Newton's classical equation of motion for a macroscopic periodically kicked pendulum system. We find that, in violation of the strong form of the correspondence principle, the Bohmian trajectory does not, in general, agree or correspond with the Newtonian trajectory for all times. The Bohm-Newton trajectory correspondence holds as long as the wave packet remains localized in angle. Delocalization of the wave packet in angle triggers the breakdown of the correspondence. The breakdown occurs exponentially quickly if either the Newtonian trajectory that initially coincides with the Bohmian trajectory or one of its classical neighbors is chaotic. In contrast, the breakdown occurs much slower if neither the Newtonian trajectory nor its neighbors are chaotic. These behaviors of the Bohm-Newton trajectory correspondence are generic, or universal, for the class of macroscopic Hamiltonian dynamical systems with bound coordinate space since the kick pendulum is a prototypical member. We predict that neither Bohm's equation of motion nor Newton's correctly predicts the experimentally observed and measured trajectory of a macroscopic system after the breakdown of the correspondence, implying that the all-times agreement required by the strong form of the correspondence principle is unnecessary.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.61.032105

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The trajectory predicted by Bohm's quantum equation of motion, using an initially angle-localized minimum-uncertainty Gaussian wave packet, is compared with the trajectory predicted by Newton's classical equation of motion for a macroscopic periodically kicked pendulum system. We find that, in violation of the strong form of the correspondence principle, the Bohmian trajectory does not, in general, agree or correspond with the Newtonian trajectory for all times. The Bohm-Newton trajectory correspondence holds as long as the wave packet remains localized in angle. Delocalization of the wave packet in angle triggers the breakdown of the correspondence. The breakdown occurs exponentially quickly if either the Newtonian trajectory that initially coincides with the Bohmian trajectory or one of its classical neighbors is chaotic. In contrast, the breakdown occurs much slower if neither the Newtonian trajectory nor its neighbors are chaotic. These behaviors of the Bohm-Newton trajectory correspondence are generic, or universal, for the class of macroscopic Hamiltonian dynamical systems with bound coordinate space since the kick pendulum is a prototypical member. We predict that neither Bohm's equation of motion nor Newton's correctly predicts the experimentally observed and measured trajectory of a macroscopic system after the breakdown of the correspondence, implying that the all-times agreement required by the strong form of the correspondence principle is unnecessary.
The behavior of the periodically kicked pendulum is determined classically and quantum mechanically. Our earlier analytic study [Phys. Rev. A 41, 2952 (1990)] is confirmed and extended by the numerical results presented here. We are able to construct minimum uncertainty, Gaussian wave packets that maintain their form, and shadow the corresponding classical motion for long times when the classical motion is nonchaotic or only weakly chaotic. However, when the classical motion is robustly chaotic, the quantum-mechanical probability distribution grows macroscopically broad exponentially fast and the quantum-classical correspondence breaks down.
The initial quantum dynamics of an initially well-localized, minimum-uncertainty Gaussian wave packet is studied analytically for the periodically kicked pendulum. The general results presented here include our earlier analytic result [Phys. Rev. A 41, 2952 (1990)] as a special case. We find that as long as the packet remains localized, it remains approximately Gaussian, while its center and widths evolve in time approximately according to, respectively, the classical map and a variance map which utilize the instantaneous values of the classical Jacobi matrix. When the classical map is very strongly chaotic, we predict that the average kinetic energy of the well-localized wave packet does not initially grow diffusively (linearly with time). We show that, instead, in the presence of chaos, the deviations initially grow, on the average, exponentially at a rate equal to the corresponding classical Liapunov exponent under the appropriate conditions. The time scale (Ehrenfest time) on which the Ehrenfest-Hamilton correspondence holds in the presence of chaos is estimated and is slightly different from a previous estimate made by Chirikov, Israilev, and Shepelyansky [Sov. Sci. Rev. C 2, 209 (1981)]. Numerical evidence in support of these analytical results is presented.
The correspondence limit is illustrated for the periodically kicked pendulum. The classical dynamics of this system can be represented by a discrete map. A corresponding quantum map is derived and then rendered in the Ehrenfest formulation for expectation values. The Ehrenfest representation is studied for a minimum uncertainty Gaussian wave packet. It is shown that as \ensuremath{\Elzxh} gets very small, followed by a decrease in the variance of the wave packet, the quantum map shadows the classical map with an error approaching zero for a length of time approaching infinity. The Gaussian form of the wave packet is preserved by the time evolution provided ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{0}$T\ensuremath{\ll}1. This constraint implies that the classical map is predominantly not chaotic with very small regions of very weak chaos. As ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{0}$T approaches 1, where the classical map becomes strongly chaotic, the propagation in time of the Gaussian wave packet completely breaks down. The possible significance of this breakdown is discussed.
We analyze the dynamics of a quantum particle in a one-dimensional bistable potential within the framework of Bohm's quantum mechanics. We give arguments that evidence the fallacy of certain claims found in the literature dealing with the impossibility of chaotic behavior of Bohmian trajectories in one-dimensional systems. We find that an appropriate choice for the initial position and wave packet causes the particle to undergo periodic, quasiperiodic, or chaotic motion. The transitions between these regimes occur in a continuos fashion.
The quantum dynamics of a classically chaotic model are studied in the approach to the macroscopic limit. The quantum predictions are compared and contrasted with the classical predictions of both Newtonian and Liouville mechanics. The time-domain scaling of the optimal quantum-classical correspondence is analyzed in detail in the case of both classical theories. In both cases the correspondence for observable quantities is shown to break down on a time-scale that increases very slowly (logarithmically) with increasing system size. In the case of quantum-Liouville correspondence such a short time-scale does not imply a breakdown of correspondence since the largest quantum-Liouville differences reached on this time-scale decrease rapidly (as an inverse power) with increasing system size. Therefore the statistical properties of chaotic dynamics are, as expected, well described by quantum theory in the macroscopic limit. In contrast, the largest quantum-Newtonian differences reached on the log time-scale actually increase in proportion to the system size. Since the invariance properties of the Hamiltonian impose functional constraints on the time-varying chaotic coordinates, it is possible to show, moreover, that if the quantum predictions are believed to describe the coordinates of individual chaotic systems, then they also predict macroscopic violations of any kinematic or dynamic constants of the motion. These results for chaotic systems indicate that a valid description of the time-varying properties of individual macroscopic bodies is not available within the standard interpretive framework of quantum theory.
New insight into the nature of Bohm's quantum force is presented. Based on our numerical study, we conclude that, for the kicked pendulum, Bohm's quantum-force time-series for nonstationary states is typically or generically non-Gaussian stable distributed with a flat power spectrum. For fixed system parameters and initial wave function, the stable parameters and the constant value of the power spectrum are independent of the initial Bohmian angle. We conjecture that these properties of the quantum-force time-series are also typical or generic for other classically chaotic Hamiltonian dynamical systems since the kicked pendulum is a prototypical member of this class of systems. A new method of calculating the quantum probability density of a particle's position implied by these quantum-force properties is described.