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Annalen der Physik

Quantum uncertainties of the confined Harmonic Oscillator in position, momentum and phase‐space

Humberto G. Laguna, Robin P. Sagar

Published Oct 21, 2014• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum uncertainties in position, momentum and phase‐space are studied in the confined Harmonic Oscillator. Standard deviations and Shannon entropies are used to quantify these uncertainties and their behaviors are compared and contrasted. We observe a minimum in the momentum space Shannon entropy as the box length is increased, a feature that is not present in the momentum space standard deviation. The behaviors of the standard deviation product and the Shannon entropy sum, which form the basis of uncertainty relationships, are also analyzed. Maxima are observed in the product as the box length increases in sharp contrast to the entropy sum. The relationship between these behaviors and that of the Shannon entropy of the phase‐space Wigner function is analyzed and discussed. An analysis of the energetic components is also performed. The results reinforce the idea that the confined Harmonic Oscillator can be considered as an intermediate model which interpolates between the Particle in a Box Model and the Harmonic Oscillator and thus contains characteristics of both models. image

DOI
10.1002/andp.201400156

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Quantum uncertainties in position, momentum and phase‐space are studied in the confined Harmonic Oscillator. Standard deviations and Shannon entropies are used to quantify these uncertainties and their behaviors are compared and contrasted. We observe a minimum in the momentum space Shannon entropy as the box length is increased, a feature that is not present in the momentum space standard deviation. The behaviors of the standard deviation product and the Shannon entropy sum, which form the basis of uncertainty relationships, are also analyzed. Maxima are observed in the product as the box length increases in sharp contrast to the entropy sum. The relationship between these behaviors and that of the Shannon entropy of the phase‐space Wigner function is analyzed and discussed. An analysis of the energetic components is also performed. The results reinforce the idea that the confined Harmonic Oscillator can be considered as an intermediate model which interpolates between the Particle in a Box Model and the Harmonic Oscillator and thus contains characteristics of both models. image
Information‐based uncertainty measures like Shannon entropy, Onicescu energy and Fisher information (in position and momentum space) are employed to understand the effect of symmetric and asymmetric confinement in a quantum harmonic oscillator. Also, the transformation of the Hamiltonian into a dimensionless form gives an idea of the composite effect of force constant and confinement length ( x c ). In the symmetric case, a wide range of x c has been taken up, whereas asymmetric confinement is dealt with by shifting the minimum of the potential from the origin keeping box length and boundary fixed. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors for these systems are obtained quite accurately via an imaginary‐time propagation scheme. For asymmetric confinement, a variation‐induced exact diagonalization procedure is also introduced, which produces very high quality results. One finds that, in symmetric confinement, after a certain characteristic x c , all these properties converge to respective values of a free harmonic oscillator. In the asymmetric situation, excited‐state energies always pass through a maximum. For this potential, the classical turning point decreases, whereas well depth increases with the strength of asymmetry. A study of these uncertainty measures reveals that localization increases with an increase of the asymmetry parameter. image
The time-dependent behaviour of harmonic oscillator squeezed states is examined from the viewpoint of position and momentum space Shannon entropies and their sum. Analytical expressions for these entropies are obtained from a symplectic group approach. The entropy sum returns to the entropic uncertainty bound at different time intervals, and is characterized by the presence of either a maximum (minimum) in the position space Shannon entropy and a minimum (maximum) in the momentum space one. The maximal value of the entropy sum is characterized by equality of position and momentum Shannon entropies. The transition of the entropy sum from the bound to its maximal value is studied, and relations between position and momentum space Shannon entropies are probed. The relation between the position and momentum space entropies is deformed as the value of the squeezing parameter increases. An analysis of the dependence of the Shannon entropies on the squeezing parameter shows different behaviours at different times. Both position and momentum space Shannon entropies exhibit a linear dependence on the parameter when their sum lies on the uncertainty bound. Here, the entropy sum is independent of the parameter. At other times, the relation between the entropies and squeezing parameter is non-linear, and extremal points are present. The entropy sum here is seen to be an increasing function of the parameter. Kullback–Leibler distances between squeezed and unsqueezed densities illustrate that the position or momentum space densities of the squeezed system can revert back to the unsqueezed ones during the time evolution. The phase-space Wigner function, entropy and mutual information are also examined and discussed. The statistical correlation as measured by mutual information is the entropy sum minus its value at the uncertainty bound.
Shannon entropies of the Wigner function are calculated for ground and excited stationary states of the Particle-In-A-Box and Harmonic Oscillator model systems and examined as a measure of the localization of the phase-space distribution. We show that their behavior is consistent with that of the sum of the position and momentum space entropies as a function of quantum number. Position-momentum correlation is then analyzed in these systems by defining mutual information between position and momentum variables. This mutual information yields non-zero values, in contrast to the quantum covariance, and increases with quantum number.
CONFINED HARMONIC OSCILLATOR.The aim of this study was a didactic presentation of the Shannon entropy in the quantum theory context, followed by application to the case of a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator in its ground state, both in the free case and confined case.The study of these systems allows us to highlight notions such as location or delocation of a particle, a possible interpretation that the Shannon entropy can adopt.The Shannon entropy in position (S x ) and momentum (S p ) spaces were calculated for both systems, beyond the entropic sum (S t = S x + S p ).With this procedure it was possible to identify trends in the behavior of the Shannon entropy (S x and S p ) and test the compliance of the entropic uncertainty relation (S t = S x + S p ≥ n(1 + ln(p))).
Abstract The Shannon information entropy sum is examined as systems comprised of two-level harmonic oscillator states are passed through dephasing and depolarization quantum channels. We show how the entropy sum increases as the dephasing parameter is increased. The interpretation here is a loss of information in the system as the quantum coherences are removed. This result and interpretation also holds in the depolarization channel as the system transits to the maximally mixed state. The increase in the entropy sum is associated with a delocalization of both position and momentum densities. The behaviour of phase-space Wigner functions and their Shannon entropies is also addressed. Wigner negativity is seen to decrease and disappear with an increase of the dephasing parameter. Here, Wigner negativity is associated with the presence of quantum coherences. The imaginary component of the Wigner function entropy is shown to capture the changes in Wigner negativity. On the other hand, Wigner functions with diagonal input density matrices are non-negative in the depolarization channel. Their real-valued Shannon entropies increase with the depolarization parameter as the system approaches the maximally mixed state. The mutual information between the Wigner function and the product of position and momentum space densities is used to probe the statistical correlation between position and momentum variables. This measure decreases in both channels as the parameter increases. Thus, there is a loss of correlation as quantum coherences are eliminated in the dephasing case, and as the system transits to the maximally mixed case in the depolarizing channel.
Abstract Information‐based uncertainty measures like Rényi entropy (R), Shannon entropy (S) and Onicescu energy (E) are employed to understand the influence of radial confinement in an isotropic harmonic oscillator (IHO). The transformation of the Hamiltonian into a dimensionless form gives an idea of the composite effect of oscillation frequency (ω) and confinement radius (). For a given quantum state, accurate results are provided by applying the respective exact analytical wave function in the r‐space. The p‐space wave functions are produced from Fourier transforms of radial functions. Pilot calculations are done taking order of entropic moments () as in r‐ and p‐spaces. A detailed, systematic analysis is performed for a 3D confined harmonic oscillator (CHO) with respect to state indices , and . It has been found that the CHO acts as a bridge between particles in a spherical box and the 3D free IHO. In the low‐ region, increases while decrease with the rise in . At moderate , there exists an interaction between two competing factors: i) radial confinement (localization) and ii) accumulation of radial nodes with growth of (delocalization). Most of these results are reported here for the first time, revealing many new interesting features.