By making use of the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory, the solution of the Schrödinger equation for the time-dependent linear potential corresponding to the quadratic-form Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant
Iq(t) is obtained in the present paper. It is emphasized that in order to obtain the general solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, one should first find the complete set of Lewis-Riesenfeld invariants. For the present quantum system with a time-dependent linear potential, the linear
Il(t) and quadratic
Iq(t) (where the latter
Iq(t) cannot be written as the squared of the former
Il(t), {\it i.e.}, the relation
Iq(t)=cIl2(t) does not hold true always) will form a complete set of Lewis-Riesenfeld invariants. It is also shown that the solution obtained by Bekkar {\it et al.} more recently is the one corresponding to the linear
Il(t), one of the invariants that form the complete set. In addition, we discuss some related topics regarding the comment [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 68}, 016101 (2003)] of Bekkar {\it et al.} on Guedes's work [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 63}, 034102 (2001)] and Guedes's corresponding reply [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 68}, 016102 (2003)].
We demonstrate that the recently observed damping of Rabi oscillations of a trapped
9Be+ ion initially cooled to its motional ground state [Meekhof et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1796 (1996)] is caused by quantum jumps to an auxiliary electronic state. This mechanism also predicts an asymmetric decay of the electronic-state population that is found to be in good agreement with the measured data.