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Journal of Mathematical Physics

Levinson’s theorem, zero-energy resonances, and time delay in one-dimensional scattering systems

Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi

Published Jun 1, 1994• 85 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The one-dimensional Levinson’s theorem is derived and used to study zero-energy resonances in a double-potential system. The low energy behavior of time delay is also investigated. In particular, it is shown that the quantum mechanical time delay admits a classical lower bound, in the low energy limit, if the potential has no bound-state solutions.

DOI
10.1063/1.530481

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The one-dimensional Levinson’s theorem is derived and used to study zero-energy resonances in a double-potential system. The low energy behavior of time delay is also investigated. In particular, it is shown that the quantum mechanical time delay admits a classical lower bound, in the low energy limit, if the potential has no bound-state solutions.
This paper states and proves Levinson's theorems for the classical scattering of two particles. The derivation is carried out by using time-delay theory. In both classical and quantum mechanics Levinson's theorems are shown to be the consequence of a common principle. This principle is the spectral property of time delay. Consider an arbitrary space region v. In quantum and classical mechanics a time-dependent scattering state traverses v in a definite time. The spectral property states that the sum of transit times for all orbits with total energy \ensuremath{\epsilon} is proportional to the state density in region v. In classical mechanics it is established that this property can be derived from simple features of the time-evolution group.
The time delay or the time advance in the scattering of simple one-dimensional systems can be evaluated in a straightforward manner for certain potential models. It is found that when the interacting potential is attractive and has a strength such that it nearly supports an additional bound state, the time delay at small scattering energy is very large. On the other hand, if the potential supports a bound state with nearly zero binding energy, the time advance near threshold is anomalously large. The behavior of a wave packet scattering from the double delta-function potential is also investigated.
In this Thesis we study several aspects of potential scattering in non-relativistic quantum mechanics. In the first part, we study the concept of time delay. More precisely, after an elementary introduction to the theory (chapter I), we clarify in chapter II the role played by the localizing regions in the definition of global time delay. In chapter III, we generalize the concept to arbitrary conditions of observation for the scattered particle (conditional time delay). In chapters IV and V, we address the problem of the measure of time delay by physical clocks and, more specifically, by the Larmor clock which exploit the mechanism of precession of a spin in a magnetic field. In the second part, we are interested in the spectral property of time delay, its connection with Levinson's theorem, and the application of the latter to one-dimensional systems. We derive Levinson's theorem in chapter VI, using as a single ingredient the completeness of physical states. In chapter VII, we apply Levinson's result to determine the number of bound-states of a finite periodic potential, as a function of its period. For this, we use the factorization property of the scattering matrix which we derive in chapter VIII in the more general situation of a particle with position-dependent mass. In the third part, we are concerned by time-dependent potentials. In chapter IX, we generalize the concept of time delay, and for the particular case of a periodic variation we derive a Levinson theorem. In chapter X, we consider potentials with very slow or very rapid variations in time. The low and high frequency limits are derived as well as their first corrections, and their physical significance discussed.
We analyze the quantum-mechanical behavior of a system described by a one-dimensional asymmetric potential constituted by a step plus (i) a linear barrier or (ii) an exponential barrier. We solve the energy eigenvalue equation by means of the integral representation method, classifying the independent solutions as equivalence classes of homotopic paths in the complex plane. We discuss the structure of the bound states as function of the height U 0 of the step and we study the propagation of a sharp-peaked wave packet reflected by the barrier. For both the linear and the exponential barrier we provide an explicit formula for the delay time τ ( E ) as a function of the peak energy E. We display the resonant behavior of τ ( E ) at energies close to U 0. By analyzing the asymptotic behavior for large energies of the eigenfunctions of the continuous spectrum we also show that, as expected, τ ( E ) approaches the classical value for E → ∞, thus diverging for the step-linear case and vanishing for the step-exponential one.
We present stationary expressions for the on-shell time delay operator and for its trace in quantum-mechanical potential scattering. The trace of this operator is shown to represent the time delay for a monoenergetic and well-collimated beam of initial states. For exponentially decaying potentials the total scattering cross section and the trace of the on-shell time delay operator have analytic extensions to complex energies, with poles at most at the usual resonance poles (poles of the analytically continued S -matrix) in the lower half plane and at their mirror images with respect to the real axis. At real energies close to such a pole both the scattering cross section and the time delay are approximately of Breit–Wigner type, the sign of the time delay being related to that of the virial. These results corroborate the idea that a resonance should show up through a peak in the scattering cross section and a large (though positive) time delay.
By considering a quantum-mechanical system with complex eigenvalues, we show that indeed Levinson’s theorem extends to the non self-adjoint setting. The perturbed system corresponds to a realization of the Schrödinger operator with inverse square potential on the half-line, while the Dirichlet Laplacian on the half-line is chosen for the reference system. The resulting relation is an equality between the number of eigenvalues of the perturbed system and the winding number of the scattering system together with additional operators living at 0-energy and at infinite energy.