The harmonic oscillator is a useful model for the interpretation of many physical phenomena. It is used as a first approximation to the vibration of molecules and crystal lattices and for the quantization of electromagnetic fields, among other applications. One can solve the time-independent Schrodinger equation for the harmonic oscillator in many different ways; operator methods give rise to recurrence relations and generating functions for the stationary states. The coordinate representation renders the coordinate operator diagonal. In this particular representation the eigenvectors of the harmonic oscillator are functions of the coordinate that are commonly expressed in terms of Hermite polynomials. The chapter shows that calculation with the eigenfunctions of the harmonic oscillator is remarkably simple in the realm of the Lie algebras. The application of the bosonic algebra in theoretical physics and chemistry is so vast that it is impossible even to give a reasonable summary. An important application of the bosonic algebra is the modeling of simple quantum-mechanical systems.
The time-dependent Schrödinger equation is a cornerstone of quantum physics and governs all phenomena of the microscopic world. However, despite its importance, its origin is still not widely appreciated and properly understood. The quantization of the forced harmonic oscillator is studied with the quantum variable (
x ,
v^) , with the commutation relation [
x ,
v^] =
iℏ/
m , and using a Schrödinger’s like equation on these variable, and associating a linear operator to a constant of motion
K(
x,v,t) of the classical system, The comparison with the quantization in the space (
x,p) is done with the usual Schrödinger’s equation for the Hamiltonian
H(
x,p,t), and with the commutation relation [
x ,
p^] =
iℏ. It is found that for the non-resonant case, both forms of quantization bring about the same result. The difference means that the H-approach case brings about more complex behavior in the quantum dynamics than the K-approach case, and that the H-approach case losses more information than the K-approach case.However, for the resonant case, both forms of quantization are different, and the probability for the system to be in the exited state for the (
x ,
v^) quantization has fewer oscillations than the (
x ,
p^) quantization, the average energy of the system is higher in (
x ,
p^) quantization than on the (
x ,
v^) quantization, and the Boltzmann- Shannon entropy on the (
x ,
p^) quantization is higher than on the (
x ,
v^) quantization. The parameter does not appear to be suitable for experimental measurement because the variation in the average value of the energy is quite modest. Entropy is a nice parameter to investigate experimentally because it differs significantly.
The quantum mechanical equivalent of parametric resonance is studied. A simple model of a periodically kicked harmonic oscillator is introduced which can be solved exactly. Classically stable and unstable regions in parameter space are shown to correspond to Floquet operators with qualitatively different properties. Their eigenfunctions, which are calculated exactly, exhibit a transition: for parameter values with classically stable solutions the eigenstates are normalizable while they cannot be normalized for parameter values with classically unstable solutions. Similarly, the spectrum of quasi energies undergoes a specific transition. These observations remain valid qualitatively for arbitrary linear systems exhibiting classically parametric resonance such as the paradigm example of a frequency modulated pendulum described by Mathieu's equation.
It has been shown already that when the harmonic trap is opened (or closed) as a function of time while keeping the adiabatic parameter $\ensuremath{\mu}=[d\ensuremath{\omega}(t)/dt]/{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}(t)$ fixed, a sharp transition from an oscillatory to a monotonic exponential dynamics occurs at $\ensuremath{\mu}=2$ [Uzdin, Dalla Torre, Kosloff, and Moiseyev, Phys. Rev. A 88, 022505 (2013)]. Here we show that by using time-dependent linear coordinate transformation the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation with Hermitian time-dependent Hamiltonian is transformed into a time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation with a time-independent harmonic oscillator with the dimensionless frequency of $\sqrt{1\ensuremath{-}{(\ensuremath{\mu}/2)}^{2}}$. At $\ensuremath{\mu}=2$ a transition to a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is obtained as the potential well is transformed to a parabolic potential barrier. While in a harmonic trap noninteracting particles have classical periodic motions, they are pushed apart exponentially in time as the potential well is suddenly transformed into a parabolic potential barrier in the new variable representation.
Abstract In quantum mechanics, a classical particle is raised to a wave-function, thereby acquiring many more degrees of freedom. For instance, in the semi-classical regime, while the position and momentum expectation values follow the classical trajectory, the uncertainty of a wave-packet can evolve and beat independently. We use this insight to revisit the dynamics of a 1d particle in a time-dependent harmonic well. One can solve it by considering time reparameterizations and the Virasoro group action to map the system to the harmonic oscillator with constant frequency. We prove that identifying such a simplifying time variable is naturally solved by quantizing the system and looking at the evolution of the width of a Gaussian wave-packet. We further show that the Ermakov-Lewis invariant for the classical evolution in a time-dependent harmonic potential is actually the quantum uncertainty of a Gaussian wave-packet. This naturally extends the classical Ermakov-Lewis invariant to a constant of motion for quantum systems following Schrödinger equation. We conclude with a discussion of potential applications to quantum gravity and quantum cosmology.
The quantum mechanical equivalent of parametric resonance is studied. A simple model of a periodically kicked harmonic oscillator is introduced which can be solved exactly. Classically stable and unstable regions in parameter space are shown to correspond to Floquet operators with qualitatively different properties. Their eigenfunctions, which are calculated exactly, exhibit a transition: for parameter values with classically stable solutions the eigenstates are normalizable while they cannot be normalized for parameter values with classically instable solutions. Similarly, the spectrum of quasi energies undergoes a specific transition. These observations remain valid qualitatively for arbitrary linear systems exhibiting classically parametric resonance such as the paradigm example of a frequency modulated pendulum described by Mathieu's equation.