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European Journal of Physics

The coherent states of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator and the classical limit of the Landau theory of a charged particle in a uniform magnetic field

Wangyao Li, Kunnat J. Sebastian

Published Mar 26, 2018• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we show how the classical result of a charged particle moving in a circle in the xy plane, when a uniform magnetic field is directed along the z -axis, can be derived from the Landau quantum theory using the coherent states of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator in the xy plane. The coherent states in this case are the simultaneous eigen vectors of the annihilation operators a + and a − . We prove that the time-dependent coordinate space wave packets representing the time-dependent coherent states move in a circle with the cyclotron frequency ω c = ∣ q ∣ B m and with a radius given by the classical expression, but given in terms of the quantum mechanical expectation values. The expectation value of the energy of the particle and of the square of the radius of its circular are proportional to the square of the magnitude of the eigen value of a + in the coherent state, where as the x and y coordinates of the centre of the circle are proportional to the real and the imaginary parts of the eigen value of a − . The phase of the circular motion is the same as the phase of the complex eigen value of a + . So for a given energy of the particle or for a given radius of the circular orbit, there are an infinite number of circles which differ from each other by the x and y coordinates of the centre as well as the phase of the circular motion. The infinite degeneracy of the Landau levels is due to the invariance of the energy eigen values under spatial translations in the xy plane and rotations about the z -axis. We also show that as the magnitude of the eigen value of a + becomes much larger than one, the relative uncertainty or fluctuation in the energy and in the radius of the circular orbit becomes negligibly small as we expect for a classical state.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6404/aab985

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arXiv:1609.02522•Physics of Plasmas•Feb 1, 2017•1 citation
Abstract In this paper we show how the classical result of a charged particle moving in a circle in the xy plane, when a uniform magnetic field is directed along the z -axis, can be derived from the Landau quantum theory using the coherent states of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator in the xy plane. The coherent states in this case are the simultaneous eigen vectors of the annihilation operators a + and a − . We prove that the time-dependent coordinate space wave packets representing the time-dependent coherent states move in a circle with the cyclotron frequency ω c = ∣ q ∣ B m and with a radius given by the classical expression, but given in terms of the quantum mechanical expectation values. The expectation value of the energy of the particle and of the square of the radius of its circular are proportional to the square of the magnitude of the eigen value of a + in the coherent state, where as the x and y coordinates of the centre of the circle are proportional to the real and the imaginary parts of the eigen value of a − . The phase of the circular motion is the same as the phase of the complex eigen value of a + . So for a given energy of the particle or for a given radius of the circular orbit, there are an infinite number of circles which differ from each other by the x and y coordinates of the centre as well as the phase of the circular motion. The infinite degeneracy of the Landau levels is due to the invariance of the energy eigen values under spatial translations in the xy plane and rotations about the z -axis. We also show that as the magnitude of the eigen value of a + becomes much larger than one, the relative uncertainty or fluctuation in the energy and in the radius of the circular orbit becomes negligibly small as we expect for a classical state.
We calculate the energy levels of He+ ion placed in a uniform magnetic field directed perpendicular to the direction of its center of mass (CM) velocity vector, correct to relative order . Our calculations are within the frame work of an approximately relativistic theory, correct to relative order , of a two-particle composite system bound by electromagnetic forces, and written in terms of the position, momentum and spin operators of the constituent particles as proposed by Krajcik and Foldy, and also by Close and Osborn. Since the He+ ion has a net electric charge, the total or the CM momentum is not conserved and a neat separation of the CM and the internal motion is not possible. What is new in our approach is that, for the basis states in a first order degenerate perturbation theory to calculate the effects of the external magnetic field, we use the direct product of the coherent state of the Landau Hamiltonian of the He+ ion in a uniform magnetic field and of the simultaneous eigenstate of the internal Hamiltonian h, j2, l2, s2 and jz, where j, l and s are the internal total, orbital and spin angular moments of the He+ ion. The coherent state is an excellent approximation to the expected classical circular motion of the center of mass (CM) of the He+ ion. In addition to the Z2 a2 corrections to the usual nonrelativistic results, including the small corrections due to the nuclear motion, we also obtain corrections which depend on the kinetic energy (ECM ) of the CM circular motion of the He+ ion, in a nontrivial way. Even though these corrections are proportional to , where M is the mass of the He+ ion, and are small for nonrelativistic CM motion, the results should be verifiable in careful experiments. Our results may also have application in astrophysical observations of the spectral lines of He+ ions in magnetized astrophysical objects.
We propose an elementary approach for introducing the quasi-classical quantum states of a spinless charged particle in a uniform magnetic field. By exploiting the similarity with the case of the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator as well as a property of the solutions of the pertinent Schrödinger equation, we derive two basic solutions. One of them is a stationary, minimum-uncertainty wavepacket centred at an arbitrary point. This corresponds to a classical particle at rest. The other solution is a minimum-uncertainty wavepacket that rotates at the classical angular speed. The expected value of the energy agrees with the classical prediction within the zero-point energy. These results are obtained without any knowledge of the energy eigenstates. An appendix suggests a brief and self-contained procedure for writing the Hamiltonian of a charged particle under the Lorentz force.
\n We have formulated a model of a complex (two-dimensional) quantum harmonic oscillator. All dynamical physical variables are expressed in terms of the creation and annihilation operators, viz., $a_{z}, \\bar{a}_{z}\\ {\\rm and} \\ a_{\\bar{z}}, \\bar{a}_{\\bar{z}} $. The Hamiltonian of the system is $H_{z\\bar{z}} = (\\bar{a}_{z}a_{z} + 1) + \\omega L_{z} $, where ω is the oscillator frequency and $L_{z} = \\frac{\\hbar }{2}\\,(\\bar{a}_{\\bar{z}} a_{\\bar{z}}-\\bar{a}_{z}a_{z}) $ is the orbital angular momentum. The oscillator is found to be described by a conserved orbital angular momentum (Lz) besides energy. While the ground-state wave function is real, all excited states are complex and degenerate. The oscillator in these states carry a quantum of charge of $e^{{\\ast}} = \\frac{n}{2n\\pm1} e $. These degenerate wave functions are eigenstates of the orbital angular momentum with eigenvalues nℏ and −nℏ, where h=2πℏ is the Planck's constant and n=1, 2, … . The two wave functions are degenerate with energy En=(n+1)ℏω. The comparison with Landau level reveals that in the presence of the magnetic field, B, where ω is equal to the cyclotron frequency, the current moment is quantized and is proportional to the square root of the magnetic field, i.e., ${\\cal I}_{n}\\propto n e \\sqrt{B} $.\n
We show that the geometric phase of the gyro-motion of a classical charged particle in a uniform time-dependent magnetic field described by Newton's equation can be derived from a coherent Berry phase for the coherent states of the Schrödinger equation or the Dirac equation. This correspondence is established by constructing coherent states for a particle using the energy eigenstates on the Landau levels and proving that the coherent states can maintain their status of coherent states during the slow varying of the magnetic field. It is discovered that the orbital Berry phases of the eigenstates interfere coherently to produce an observable effect (which we termed “coherent Berry phase”), which is exactly the geometric phase of the classical gyro-motion. This technique works for the particles with and without spin. For particles with spin, on each of the eigenstates that make up the coherent states, the Berry phase consists of two parts that can be identified as those due to the orbital and the spin motion. It is the orbital Berry phases that interfere coherently to produce a coherent Berry phase corresponding to the classical geometric phase of the gyro-motion. The spin Berry phases of the eigenstates, on the other hand, remain to be quantum phase factors for the coherent states and have no classical counterpart.