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Physical Review A

Mapping Wigner distribution functions into semiclassical distribution functions

Gerhard Wilhelm Bund, M.C. Tijero

Published Apr 19, 2000• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A mapping that relates the Wigner phase-space distribution function of a given stationary quantum mechanical wave function, a solution of the Schr\"odinger equation, to a specific solution of the Liouville equation, both subject to the same potential, is studied. By making this mapping, bound states are described by semiclassical distribution functions still depending on Planck's constant, whereas for elastic scattering of a particle by a potential they do not depend on it, the classical limit being reached in this case. Following this method, the mapped distributions of a particle bound in the P\"oschl-Teller potential and also in a modified oscillator potential are obtained.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.61.052114

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A mapping that relates the Wigner phase-space distribution function of a given stationary quantum mechanical wave function, a solution of the Schr"odinger equation, to a specific solution of the Liouville equation, both subject to the same potential, is studied. By making this mapping, bound states are described by semiclassical distribution functions still depending on Planck's constant, whereas for elastic scattering of a particle by a potential they do not depend on it, the classical limit being reached in this case. Following this method, the mapped distributions of a particle bound in the P"oschl-Teller potential and also in a modified oscillator potential are obtained.
Correct use of the Wigner representation of quantum mechanics, which is realized with joint distributions of quasiprobabilities in phase space, requires the use of certain specific rules and attention to a number of properties which distinguish the quasiprobability from a true probability. This paper is mainly concerned with these problems. In the Wigner representation the quantum Liouville equation appears instead of the Schroedinger equation. The solution may have no physical meaning unless it is subjected to a necessary and sufficient condition which selects an allowed class of distributions which describe quantum-mechanical pure states. This condition contains Planck's constant and imposes, besides the uncertainty relations, severe restrictions on the possible form of the Wigner function. When this condition is satisfied, one can reconstruct the wave function from the Wigner function. In the case of an oscillator, the quantization condition for the energies of the stationary states does not follow from the Liouville equation, but from this supplementary condition. Unlike the true probability density, any Wigner function (except Gaussian ones) of a pure state takes on negative values. Another important peculiarity is that the quasiprobability is not concentrated on certain hypersurfaces, but is smeared out over the entire phase space. These and other features considered in this paper should be kept in mind when using the Wigner representation in quantum-mechanical problems.
The mapping of the Wigner distribution function (WDF) for a given bound state onto a semiclassical distribution function (SDF) satisfying the Liouville equation introduced previously by us is applied to the ground state of the Morse oscillator. The purpose of the present work is to obtain values of the potential parameters represented by the number of levels in the case of the Morse oscillator, for which the SDF becomes a faithful approximation of the corresponding WDF. We find that for a Morse oscillator with one level only, the agreement between the WDF and the mapped SDF is very poor but for a Morse oscillator of ten levels it becomes satisfactory. We also discuss the limit h --> 0 for fixed potential parameters.
We derive a classical Schrodinger type equation from the classical Liouville equation in phase space. The derivation is based on a Wigner type Fourier transform of the classical phase space probability distribution, which depends on an arbitrary constant ααα with dimension of action. In order to achieve this goal two requirements are necessary: 1) It is assumed that the classical probability amplitude Ψ(x,t)Ψ(x,t)Ψ(x,t) can be expanded in a complete set of functions Φn(x)Φ_n(x)Φn​(x) defined in the configuration space; 2) the classical phase space distribution W(x,p,t)W(x,p,t)W(x,p,t) obeys the Liouville equation and is a real function of the position, the momentum and the time. We show that the constant ααα appearing in the Fourier transform of the classical phase space distribution, and also in the classical Schrodinger type equation, has its origin in the spectral distribution of the vacuum zero-point radiation, and is identified with the Planck's constant ℏ\hbarℏ.
In quantum mechanics, systems can be described in phase space in terms of the Wigner function and the star-product operation. Quantum characteristics, which appear in the Heisenberg picture as the Weyl's symbols of operators of canonical coordinates and momenta, can be used to solve the evolution equations for symbols of other operators acting in the Hilbert space. To any fixed order in the Planck's constant, many-body potential scattering problem simplifies to a statistical-mechanical problem of computing an ensemble of quantum characteristics and their derivatives with respect to the initial canonical coordinates and momenta. The reduction to a system of ordinary differential equations pertains rigorously at any fixed order in ħ. We present semiclassical expansion of quantum characteristics for many-body scattering problem and provide tools for calculation of average values of time-dependent physical observables and cross sections. The method of quantum characteristics admits the consistent incorporation of specific quantum effects, such as non-locality and coherence in propagation of particles, into the semiclassical transport models. We formulate the principle of stationary action for quantum Hamilton's equations and give quantum-mechanical extensions of the Liouville theorem on conservation of the phase-space volume and the Poincaré theorem on conservation of 2p-forms. The lowest order quantum corrections to the Kepler periodic orbits are constructed. These corrections show the resonance behavior.