Revival of the Phase–Amplitude Description of a Quantum-Mechanical Wave Function

George H. Rawitscher

Zhiyong Wang, Cai-Dong Xiong, Ole Keller

In contrast to wave functions in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics interpreted as probability amplitudes, wave functions in relativistic quantum mechanics have generalized meanings such as charge-density amplitudes, energy-density amplitudes as well as particle-number density amplitudes, etc. Applying electromagnetic field intensities we construct a photon wave function, it corresponds to the (1,0)+(0,1) spinor representation of the electromagnetic field, and can be interpreted as the energy-density amplitude of photons outside a source. In terms of photon wave functions we develop photon wave mechanics, which provides us with a new quantum-mechanical description for photons outside a source.

George H. Rawitscher

F. Selleri

Masayoshi Nakano, Ryohei Kishi, Tomoshige Nitta +1 more

We investigate the quantum-phase dynamics of a dissipative molecular system interacting with a single-mode amplitude-squeezed field (with a sub-Poissonian photon-number distribution) using the Monte Carlo wave-function method. As quantum dissipation, we consider molecular coherent (phase) and population relaxations, which are caused by nuclear vibration, and cavity relaxation (the dissipation of an internal single mode to outer mode). In this study, we elucidate the effects of these dissipations on the unique quantum dynamical behaviors of this coupled system, e.g., collapse-revival behavior of Rabi oscillations, using the quasiprobability (Q function) distribution of a single-mode field and the off-diagonal molecular density matrix. It is found that although the amplitude-squeezed field exhibits a distinct revival with larger amplitudes of molecular population in the presence of the molecular phase and population relaxations as compared to the coherent field, a very slight cavity relaxation suppresses the revival of molecular population and the increase in the magnitude of off-diagonal molecular density matrices during the quiescent region in the amplitude-squeezed field case more significantly than in the coherent field case. These features are shown to be closely related to the difference in the dynamics of Q function distributions between amplitude-squeezed and coherent fields.

V.V. Babikov