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Journal of Modern Optics

Pulse propagation and windowed wave functions

J. Ben-Benjamin, Leon W. Cohen

Published Sep 2, 2013• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We apply quasi-distribution methods developed for quantum mechanics to the propagation of pulses in dispersive media with attenuation. We show that a Schrödinger type equation follows for propagation of the pulse for each mode. One then transforms the equation to obtain an equation of evolution in the phase space of position and wavenumber. In this paper we emphasize windowed wave functions and their corresponding phase space quasi-distributions. We obtain the time evolution equation, discuss possible approximations, and compare to the Wigner distribution approximation previously derived by Loughlin and Cohen by different methods.

DOI
10.1080/09500340.2013.829876

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We apply quasi-distribution methods developed for quantum mechanics to the propagation of pulses in dispersive media with attenuation. We show that a Schrödinger type equation follows for propagation of the pulse for each mode. One then transforms the equation to obtain an equation of evolution in the phase space of position and wavenumber. In this paper we emphasize windowed wave functions and their corresponding phase space quasi-distributions. We obtain the time evolution equation, discuss possible approximations, and compare to the Wigner distribution approximation previously derived by Loughlin and Cohen by different methods.
Abstract We show that phase space methods developed for quantum mechanics, such as the Wigner distribution, can be effectively used to study the evolution of nonstationary noise in dispersive media. We formulate the issue in terms of modes and show how modes evolve and how they are effected by sources.We show that each mode satisfies a Schrödinger type equation where the “Hamiltonian” may not be Hermitian. The Hamiltonian operator corresponds to dispersion relationwhere thewavenumber is replaced by the wavenumber operator. A complex dispersion relation corresponds to a non Hermitian operator and indicates that we have attenuation. A number of examples are given.
We discuss a number of topics relevant to noise propagation in dispersive media. We formulate the problem of pulse propagation with a source term in phase space and show that a four dimensional Wigner distribution is required. The four dimensional Wigner distribution is that of space and time and also wavenumber and frequency. The four dimensional Wigner spectrum is equivalent to the space-time autocorrelation function. We also apply the quantum path method to improve the phase space approximation previously obtained. In addition we discuss motion in a Snell’s law medium.
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We have recently derived a phase space approximation for wave propagation, and we have shown that this approximation is accurate especially compared to the stationary phase approximation. The method gives an approximate Wigner distribution, which raises the question, is the approximate Wigner distribution representable? If it is, then we can invert it to obtain the corresponding wave function. If it is not, can we obtain an approximate wave function from it, and how good is the approximation? Although the answer to the first question is no, we show that from the Wigner approximation one can recover the exact spatial spectrum magnitude and derivative of the phase. We also consider other methods for obtaining approximate wave functions from the Wigner approximation.