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The Journal of Chemical Physics

Mixed state quantum mechanics in hydrodynamical form

James Lill, M. I. Haftel, G. H. Herling

Published May 1, 1989• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A newly derive set of quantum fluid dynamical equations appropriate for the description of mixed state dynamics is presented. Based essentially on moments of the Wigner function, the theory presented here uses an expansion of the pseudodistribution function in conjunction with a renormalization technique to obtain a semiclassical approximation for the dynamics of the probability, probability current, and energy densities. Particularly simple equations, ideal fluid dynamics with a nonlocal potential, result from using a local Maxwellian ansatz for the Wigner function. Further, the transformed potential may be easily computed from the fields being convected. Analogies with classical kinetic theory and fluid dynamics are exploited whenever possible.

DOI
10.1063/1.456593

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A newly derive set of quantum fluid dynamical equations appropriate for the description of mixed state dynamics is presented. Based essentially on moments of the Wigner function, the theory presented here uses an expansion of the pseudodistribution function in conjunction with a renormalization technique to obtain a semiclassical approximation for the dynamics of the probability, probability current, and energy densities. Particularly simple equations, ideal fluid dynamics with a nonlocal potential, result from using a local Maxwellian ansatz for the Wigner function. Further, the transformed potential may be easily computed from the fields being convected. Analogies with classical kinetic theory and fluid dynamics are exploited whenever possible.
A quantum mechanical time-dependent variational principle is generalized using the classical theory of fluids to obtain a variational principle suitable for the fluid dynamical description of mixed state quantum mechanics. A newly derived set of moment equations, in both standard and renormalized form, can be derived with the aid of this principle through minimization of the error in expressing the total derivative of the Wigner function. Coupled systems are studied in the time-dependent Hartree (TDH) approximation using a novel variational principle, and the renormalization procedure used earlier in the examination of single particle dynamics is extended to the TDH analysis. Use of a local Maxwellian ansatz for each particle results in a particularly simple ‘‘two-fluid’’ theory, the TDH/LM approximation, which does not violate the standard and renormalized energy conservation theorems derived earlier for the single particle equations. The fluid dynamical TDH/LM approximation is shown to possess a simple semiclassical interpretation.
Semiclassical limits for the dynamics of the Wigner function, and for the dynamics of the low-order moments of physical interest, are discussed in fluid-dynamical terms. The harmonic-oscillator solution yields local Maxwellian (ideal) fluid-dynamical behavior, and this is extended to locally quadratic problems in a straightforward manner. Coherent states are shown to have a particularly simple fluid-dynamical interpretation, and coherence may be easily demonstrated for mixed states having an arbitrary degree of uncertainty in the field variables. The semiclassical behavior of pure and mixed states is conveniently discussed in terms of coherent and incoherent limits, and the origin of quantum-mechanical behavior in the simple low-order approximations proposed is simply explained. The relation to the pure-state theory of Madelung is made explicit. A recently proposed method for the solution of a certain hierarchy of quantum-fluid-dynamical equations is analyzed in detail, and is demonstrated to be inconsistent with these semiclassical limits.
This thesis provides a detailed derivation of dissipative spin hydrodynamics from quantum field theory for systems composed of spin-0, spin-1/2, or spin-1 particles. The Wigner function formalism is introduced for quantum fields in the respective representations of the Poincaré group, and the conserved currents, i.e., the energy-momentum tensor and the total angular momentum tensor, in various so-called pseudogauges are derived. An expansion around the semiclassical limit in powers of the Planck constant is performed. Subsequently, kinetic equations are obtained for binary elastic scattering, using both the de Groot-van Leeuwen-van Weert and Kadanoff-Baym method, with the latter retaining the effect of quantum statistics. The resulting collision term features both local and nonlocal contributions, with the latter providing a relaxation mechanism for the spin degrees of freedom of the quasiparticles. The local-equilibrium distribution function is derived from the requirement that the local part of the collision term vanishes. From quantum kinetic theory, dissipative spin hydrodynamics is then constructed via the method of moments, extended to particles with spin. The system of moment equations is closed via the Inverse-Reynolds Dominance (IReD) approach, resulting in a set of equations of motion describing the evolution of both ideal and dissipative degrees of freedom. The application to polarization phenomena relevant to heavy-ion collisions is discussed.
The hydrodynamic formulation of mixed quantum states involves a hierarchy of coupled equations of motion for the momentum moments of the Wigner function. In this work a closure scheme for the hierarchy is developed. The closure scheme uses information contained in the lower known moments to expand the Wigner phase-space distribution function in a Gauss-Hermite orthonormal basis. The higher moment required to terminate the hierarchy is then easily obtained from the reconstructed approximate Wigner function by a straightforward integration over the momentum space. Application of the moment closure scheme is demonstrated for the dissipative and nondissipative dynamics of two different systems: (i) double-well potential, (ii) periodic potential.
The family of trajectories-based approximations employed in computational quantum physics and chemistry is very diverse. For instance, Bohmian and Heller's frozen Gaussian semiclassical trajectories seem to have nothing in common. Based on a hydrodynamic analogy to quantum mechanics, we furnish the unified gauge theory of all such models. In the light of this theory, currently known methods are just a tip of the iceberg, and there exists an infinite family of yet unexplored trajectory-based approaches. Specifically, we show that each definition for a semiclassical trajectory corresponds to a specific hydrodynamic analogy, where a quantum system is mapped to an effective probability fluid in the phase space. We derive the continuity equation for the effective fluid representing dynamics of an arbitrary open bosonic many-body system. We show that unlike in conventional fluid, the flux of the effective fluid is defined up to Skodje's gauge [R. T. Skodje et. al. Phys. Rev. A 40, 2894 (1989)]. We prove that the Wigner, Husimi and Bohmian representations of quantum mechanics are particular cases of our generic hydrodynamic analogy, and all the differences among them reduce to the gauge choice. Infinitely many gauges are possible, each leading to a distinct quantum hydrodynamic analogy and a definition for semiclassical trajectories. We propose a scheme for identifying practically useful gauges and apply it to improve a semiclassical initial value representation employed in quantum many-body simulations.
We follow and modify the Feshbach–Villars formalism by separating the Klein–Gordon equation into two coupled time-dependent Schrödinger equations for particle and antiparticle wave function components with positive probability densities. We find that the equation of motion for the probability densities is in the form of relativistic hydrodynamics where various forces have their classical counterparts, with the additional element of the quantum stress tensor that depends on the derivatives of the amplitude of the wave function. We derive the equation of motion for the Wigner function and we find that its approximate classical weak-field limit coincides with the equation of motion for the distribution function in the collisionless kinetic theory.