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SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics

On Time-Dependent Quadratic Quantum Hamiltonians

Kurt Bernardo Wolf

Published Jun 1, 1981• 58 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We apply the techniques of canonical transforms to equations of the type \[\left[ {A( t )\mathbb{P}^2 + B( t )\{ \mathbb{P}\mathbb{Q} + \mathbb{Q}\mathbb{P} \} + C( t )\mathbb{Q}^2 + D( t )\mathbb{Q} + E( t )\mathbb{P} + F( t )\mathbb{1}} \right]\psi ( q,t ) = - i\partial _t \psi ( q,t ),\]where $\mathbb{Q}$ and $\mathbb{P}$ are the quantum position and momentum operators. The time-dependent parameters of the ${\text{W}} \wedge {\text{SL}}( {{\text{2,}}R} )$ evolution operator are found through linear differential equations. In terms of these we give explicitly the Green’s function, all separating coordinates and similarity solutions of the equation. We analyze the behavior of Gaussian and coherent-state initial conditions in closed form and present a new interpretation of all the Lewis-Riesenfeld constants of motion.

DOI
10.1137/0140035

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We apply the techniques of canonical transforms to equations of the type [\left[ {A( t )\mathbb{P}^2 + B( t ){ \mathbb{P}\mathbb{Q} + \mathbb{Q}\mathbb{P} } + C( t )\mathbb{Q}^2 + D( t )\mathbb{Q} + E( t )\mathbb{P} + F( t )\mathbb{1}} \right]\psi ( q,t ) = - i\partial _t \psi ( q,t ),]where Q\mathbb{Q}Q and P\mathbb{P}P are the quantum position and momentum operators. The time-dependent parameters of the W∧SL(2,R){\text{W}} \wedge {\text{SL}}( {{\text{2,}}R} )W∧SL(2,R) evolution operator are found through linear differential equations. In terms of these we give explicitly the Green’s function, all separating coordinates and similarity solutions of the equation. We analyze the behavior of Gaussian and coherent-state initial conditions in closed form and present a new interpretation of all the Lewis-Riesenfeld constants of motion.
The motion of wave packets can be easily determined for any Hamiltonian that is quadratic in position and momentum, even if the coefficients of the terms in the Hamiltonian vary with time. The method is based on the existence of an invariant operator, linear in position and momentum, the coefficients of these operators being solutions of the corresponding classical system. This immediately yields a set of very simple wave packets whose evolution is easily determined, and whose magnitude has the same form as the energy eigenfunctions of the harmonic oscillator (i.e., Gaussian or Hermite–Gaussian). This set provides a complete basis for finding the evolution of any state and the exact propagator is readily determined. For the harmonic oscillator, this set includes coherent states, squeezed states, displaced number states, and squeezed number states as special cases. The following important properties hold for every quadratic Hamiltonian, no matter what time dependence is present in the Hamiltonian: (1) The motion of the centroid of any wave packet separates from that of any moments relative to the centroid. (2) Every detail of the evolution of the quantum system can be calculated from the solutions of the corresponding classical system. (3) Wave functions of Gaussian (or Hermite–Gaussian) form will retain that form as they evolve.
We use the evolution operator method to describe time-dependent quadratic quantum systems in the framework of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. For simplicity, we consider a free particle with a variable mass M(t), a particle with a variable mass M(t) in an alternating homogeneous field, and a harmonic oscillator with a variable mass M(t) and frequency ω(t) subject to a variable force F(t). To construct the evolution operators for these systems in an explicit disentangled form, we use a simple technique to find the general solution of a certain class of differential and finite-difference nonstationary Schrödinger-type equations of motion and also the operator identities of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff type. With known evolution operators, we can easily find the most general form of the propagators, invariants of any order, and wave functions and establish a unitary relation between systems. Results known in the literature follow from the obtained general results as particular cases.
Quantum canonical transformations corresponding to time-dependent diffeomorphisms of the configuration space are studied. A special class of these transformations which correspond to time-dependent dilatations is used to identify a previously unknown class of exactly solvable time-dependent harmonic oscillators. The Caldirola-Kanai oscillator belongs to this class. For a general time-dependent harmonic oscillator, it is shown that choosing the dilatation parameter to satisfy the classical equation of motion, one obtains the solution of the Schrödinger equation. A simple generalization of this result leads to the reduction of the Schrödinger equation to a second-order ordinary differential equation whose special case is the auxiliary equation of the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory. The time-evolution operator is expressed in terms of a positive real solution of this equation in a closed form, and the time-dependent position and momentum operators are calculated.
The aim of this chapter is to construct the quantum unitary propagator for Hamiltonians which are quadratic in position and momentum with time-dependent coefficients. We show that the quantum evolution is exactly solvable in terms of the classical flow which is linear. This allows to construct the metaplectic transformations which are unitary operators in L2(Rn)L^2(\mathbb R^n)L2(Rn) corresponding to symplectic transformations. Simple examples of such metaplectic transformations are the Fourier transform, which corresponds to the symplectic matrix J defined in (3.4) and the propagator of the harmonic oscillator, corresponding to rotations in the phase space. The main results of this chapter are computations of the quantum evolution operators for quadratic Hamiltonians acting on coherent states. We show that the time evolved coherent states are still Gaussian states which are recognized to be squeezed states centered at the classical phase space point (see Chap. 8). From these computations we can deduce most of properties concerning quantum quadratic Hamiltonians. In particular we get the explicit form of the Weyl symbols of the metaplectic transformations. These formulae are generalizations of the Mehler formula for the harmonic oscillator. Quadratic Hamiltonians are very important in quantum mechanics because more general Hamiltonians can be considered as non trivial perturbations of time dependent quadratic ones as we shall see in Chap. 5.
Explicitly time-dependent Hamiltonians are ubiquitous in applications of quantum theory. It is therefore necessary to solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation directly. The system’s dynamics is associated with a unitary time-evolution operator (a propagator), formally given as an infinite Dyson series. Time-dependent observables are invariant under unitary time-dependent transformations, where it is sometimes useful to transform the time-evolution from the states into the corresponding operators. This is carried out in part (in full) by transforming to the interaction (Heisenberg) picture. The corresponding equations of motion for the time-dependent operators are introduced. For quadratic potential energy functions, the time evolution of quantum expectation values coincides with the corresponding classical dynamics. This is demonstrated and analyzed in detail for Gaussian wave packets and a coherent state. Finally, we derive exact and approximate expressions for time-dependent transition probabilities and transition rates between quantum states. The validity of time-dependent perturbation theory is analyzed by comparison to exact dynamics.
We reexamine the general solution of a Schr\"odinger equation in the presence of a time-dependent linear potential in configuration space based on the Lewis-Riesenfeld framework. For comparison, we also solve the problem in momentum space and then Fourier transform the solution to get the general wave function. Appropriately choosing the weight function in the latter method, we can obtain the same wave function as the former method. It is found that a non-Hermitian time-dependent linear invariant can be used to obtain Gaussian-type wave-packet solutions of the time-dependent system. This operator is a specific linear combination of the initial momentum and initial position operators. This fact indicates that the constants of integration such as the initial position and initial momentum that determine the classical motion play important roles in the time-dependent quantum system. The eigenfunction of the linear invariant is interpreted as a wave packet with a ``center of mass'' moving along the classical trajectory, while the ratio between the coefficients of the initial position and initial momentum determines the width of the wave packet.