Hilbert Spaces of bounded one dimensional non-linear oscillators are studied. It is shown that the eigenvalue structure of all such oscillators have the same general form. They are dependent only on the ground state energy of the system and a single functional
λ(H) of the Hamiltonian
H whose form depends explicitly on
H. It is also found that the Hilbert Space of the non-linear oscillator is unitarily inequivalent to the Hilbert Space of the simple harmonic oscillator, providing an explicit example of Haag's Theorem. A number operator for the nonlinear oscillator is constructed and the general form of the partition function and average energy of an non-linear oscillator in contact with a heat bath is determined. Connection with the WKB result in the semi-classical limit is made. This analysis is then applied to the specific case of the
x4 anharmonic oscillator.
In this article, for pedagogical purposes we have discussed the application of nondegenerate perturbation theory up to the third order to compute energy eigenvalues and wave functions for the quantum anharmonic oscillator. Energy levels of a single quartic oscillator for 𝜆 values in range of 0.1-1 are given. Perturbed and non-perturbed wave functions of the levels up to the fourth excited level are compared. Ground, first and second excited energy levels are also calculated by applying finite differences method and, results are compared with the ones obtained via perturbation theory. It is found that perturbation theory gives comparable results only for a small 𝜆 parameter and for the ground state. The quartic term in the Hamiltonian of the anharmonic oscillator leads to a more effective confinement of the particle which is deduced from the plots of wavefunctions and probability distributions. Meanwhile, the number of zero crossing nodes of the wavefunctions increases as the energy level increases, which is an expected result for both the harmonic and anharmonic oscillator.
The paper introduces a simple quantum model to calculate in a general way allowed frequencies and energy levels of the anharmonic oscillator. The theoretical basis of the approach has been introduced in two early papers aimed to infer the properties of quantum systems exploiting the uncertainty principle only. For clarity the anharmonic oscillator is described having in mind the lattice oscillations of atoms/ions, yet quantum formalism of the model and approach have general character and can be extended to any oscillating system. The results show that the harmonic energy levels split into a complex system of energy levels dependent upon the number of anharmonic terms that characterize the oscillator.
We present a new Lie algebraic method to study the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of quantum anharmonic oscillators. We consider the Hamiltonians for the simple harmonic and anharmonic oscillator as the two generators of a Lie algebra, whose other generators may be found exactly or up to any order of the parameter involved. Speciflcally, the closed commutator algebra for the quartic anharmonic oscillator is established in a perturbation sense. An element of this Lie group, turning out to be the four-photon operator, transforms the quartic anharmonic oscillator Hamiltonian to the harmonic one in a perturbation sense; thus, facilitating the calculation of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the former.
This is an investigation of an anharmonic oscillator characterized by the potential (ω02/ 2) q2 + λ′ q4. By using the exact relations obtained by evaluating ≪i|[H, O]∓|j > where O is an arbitrary operator, H is our total Hamiltonian and |i > and |j > are exact eigenstates of H, we derive an exact recurrence formula. This formula allows us to express τ-functions with a higher power of the variables through τ-functions with a lower power of the variables and energy eigenvalues. In this way we derive several exact relations, which are, in a sense, generalizations of the virial theorem and sum rules (Eqs. (4·5), (4·6) and (5·4)). These exact relations are the central equaions of this paper. On the basis of these exact relations we propose our “nearest neighbour level” (N. N. L) approximation, which seems to provide a good approximation scheme. We can also use our exact relations to test the validity of various approximation methods, and as an example, we discuss the “New-Tamm-Dancoff” (N. T. D)-type of approximation in detail.
The simple harmonic oscillator has a well-known normalizable, positive energy, bound state spectrum. We show that degenerate with each such positive energy eigenvalue there is a non-normalizable positive energy eigenstate whose eigenfunction is orthogonal to that of the standard energy eigenfunction. This class of states is not built on the vacuum that
a annihilates, but is instead built on the vacuum that
a†a annihilates. These non-normalizable but nonetheless stationary energy eigenstates are accompanied by yet another set of non-normalizable states, states whose wave functions however are not stationary but instead grow linearly in time. With these states not being energy eigenstates, the eigenbasis of the Hamiltonian is incomplete; with the full Hilbert space containing states that are not energy eigenstates. Thus each energy eigenvalue of the harmonic oscillator is an exceptional point at which the Hamiltonian becomes of non-diagonalizable, and thus manifestly non-Hermitian, Jordan-block form. Such non-Hermitian structures occur for Hamiltonians that have an antilinear
PT symmetry. As is characteristic of such systems, one can construct a probability conserving inner product that despite the linear in time growth is nonetheless time independent, and not only that, it leads to states with zero norm. In addition, as is again characteristic of
PT symmetry, these non-normalizable states can be made normalizable by a continuation into a so-called Stokes wedge domain in the complex plane. In this domain one has a completely consistent quantum theory, one that lives alongside the standard normalizable energy eigenspectrum sector. This thus not quite so simple harmonic oscillator provides an explicit realization of our general contention that antilinearity is more basic to quantum theory than Hermiticity.