Time-Dependent Perturbation Expansion

Paolo Aniello

A novel expansion -- which generalizes Magnus expansion -- of the evolution operator associated with a (in general, time-dependent) perturbed Hamiltonian is introduced. It is shown that it has a wide range of possible solutions that can be fitted according to computational convenience. The time-independent and the adiabatic case are studied in detail.

Robert Yaris

Through the use of the time-ordered perturbation expansion, an operator equation for the time-dependent perturbation problem, of the same form as occurs in the time-independent problem, is generated. Thus, a variational method can be used to study the time-dependent case as well as the time-independent case. This variational method is used to recover the Dirac expansion as an example of a solution in series form, and it is also used to develop a simple (approximate) analytic solution as an example of a solution in closed form.

W. R. Salzman

An alternative to the Magnus expansion in time-dependent quantum mechanical perturbation theory is presented. An exponential form of the time-development operator, given as the exponential of a sum of products of integrals well known in time-dependent quantum mechanics, is derived from the standard perturbation expansion. The derivation is simple and the form of the terms in the exponential is so straightforward that the Nth order term can be written by inspection. The standard Magnus terms can be obtained by rearrangement of the terms of the new expansion probably easier than they can be obtained by iteration of the original equations. A proof by induction is presented to establish the form of the Nth term and it is shown how the new expansion terms relate to the Magnus terms. Some apparent differences between Magnus terms in the literature are resolved.

John B. Ketterson, Shenian N. Song