In this thesis, the metastable states are studied. The work focuses on a theoretical model of one or two metastable states decaying into a continuum of states which is bounded from below. We examine the time evolution of such systems and how it is affected by the energy of the metastable state(s) and by the position of the poles of the scattering matrix in the complex plane. We also look closely at the spectral line shape. Numerical integration of a system of differential equations is used for solving the problem of the time evolution and spectral line shape while Freshbach-Fano projection operator formalism is used for finding the position of the poles. The results are compared with first order perturbation theory and with semi-analytical formula obtained from adiabatic elimination of the continuum. The last part of the thesis is dedicated to an application of the model on neon-helium-neon cluster. 1
In this thesis, the metastable states are studied. The work focuses on a theoretical model of one or two metastable states decaying into a continuum of states which is bounded from below. We examine the time evolution of such systems and how it is affected by the energy of the metastable state(s) and by the position of the poles of the scattering matrix in the complex plane. We also look closely at the spectral line shape. Numerical integration of a system of differential equations is used for solving the problem of the time evolution and spectral line shape while Freshbach-Fano projection operator formalism is used for finding the position of the poles. The results are compared with first order perturbation theory and with semi-analytical formula obtained from adiabatic elimination of the continuum. The last part of the thesis is dedicated to an application of the model on neon-helium-neon cluster. 1
We present a mathematical theory of metastable pure states in closed many-body quantum systems with finite-dimensional Hilbert space. Given a Hamiltonian, a pure state is defined to be metastable when all sufficiently local operators either stabilize the state or raise its average energy. We prove that short-range-entangled metastable states are necessarily eigenstates (scars) of a perturbatively close Hamiltonian. Given any metastable eigenstate of a Hamiltonian, in the presence of perturbations, we prove the presence of prethermal behavior: Local correlation functions decay at a rate bounded by a timescale nonperturbatively long in the inverse metastability radius, rather than Fermi’s golden rule. Inspired by this general theory, we prove that the lifetime of the false vacuum in certain d -dimensional quantum models grows at least as fast as exp ( ε − d ) , where ε → 0 is the relative energy density of the false vacuum; this lower bound matches, for the first time, explicit calculations using quantum field theory. We identify metastable states at finite energy density in the PXP model, along with exponentially many metastable states in “helical” spin chains and the two-dimensional Ising model. Our inherently quantum formalism reveals precise connections between many problems, including prethermalization, robust quantum scars, and quantum nucleation theory, and applies to systems without known semiclassical and/or field-theoretic limits.
We consider the dynamics of quantum systems which possess stationary states as well as slowly decaying, metastable states arising from the perturbation of bound states. We give a decomposition of the propagator into a sum of a stationary part, one exponentially decaying in time and a polynomially decaying remainder. The exponential decay rates and the directions of decay in Hilbert space are determined, respectively, by complex resonance energies and by projections onto resonance states. Our approach is based on an elementary application of the Feshbach map. It is applicable to open quantum systems and to situations where spectral deformation theory fails. We derive a detailed description of the dynamics of the spin-boson model at arbitrary coupling strength.
This thesis is concerned with quantum mechanical decay processes and their mathematical description. It consists out of three parts: In the first part we look at Laser induced ionization, whose mathematical description is often based on the so-called dipole approximation. Employing it essentially means to replace the Laser's vector potential A(r,t) in the Hamiltonian by A(0,t). Heuristically this is justified under usual experimental conditions, because the Laser varies only slowly in r on atomic length scales. We make this heuristics rigorous by proving the dipole approximation in the limit in which the Laser's length scale becomes infinite compared to the atomic length scale. Our results apply to N-body Hamiltonians. In the second part we look at alpha decay as described by Skibsted (Comm. Math. Phys. 104, 1986) and show that Skibsted's model satisfies an energy-time uncertainty relation. Since there is no self-adjoint time operator, the uncertainty relation for energy and time can not be proven in the same way as the uncertainty relation for position and momentum. To define the time variance without a self-adjoint time operator, we will use the arrival time distribution obtained from the quantum current. Our proof of the energy-time uncertainty relation is then based on the quantitative scattering estimates that will be derived in the third part of the thesis and on a result from Skibsted. In addition to that, we will show that this uncertainty relation is different from the well known {\it linewidth-lifetime relation}. The third part is about quantitative scattering estimates, which are of interest in their own right. For rotationally symmetric potentials having support in [0,RV] we will show that for R≥RV, the time evolved wave function e−iHtψ satisfies \begin{align}\nonumber \|\1_R e^{-iHt}\psi\|_2^2\leq c_1t^{-1}+c_2t^{-2}+c_3t^{-3}+c_4t^{-4} \end{align} with explicit quantitative bounds on the constants cn in terms of the resonances of the S-Matrix. While such bounds on $\|\1_R e^{-iHt}\psi\|_2$ have been proven before, the quantitative estimates on the constants cn are new. These results are based on a detailed analysis of the S-matrix in the complex momentum plane, which in turn becomes possible by expressing the S-matrix in terms of the Jost function that can be factorized in a Hadamard product.
The radiative decay of an atom with two excited states coupled by an external perturbation is investigated. The differential equations of motion are Fourier transformed and the probability amplitudes are obtained by contour integration. The real parts of the poles in the complex plane are the perturbed energies of the excited states, and the imaginary parts yield the decay characteristics. The decay probabilities of the excited states contain three different decay terms; two exponential decays and one modulated exponential decay. The probabilities of the final states give the frequency distribution of the emitted photons as a function of time. In an Appendix, the Heitler-Ma formalism is used to eliminate the final states of the system, and the resulting equations which contain damping terms are compared with the phenomenological method.
A time-dependent perturbation theory which is based upon the U-matrix approach is presented using the interaction e-αt(1 + e-βt)−1V(x) with β real, α complex and β > Re α > 0. Thus the adiabatic or time-independent approximation (β → 0) and the sudden approximation (β → ∞) can be obtained using just one formalism. The usual series for the U matrix is derived and shown to converge for a semi infinite range if the interaction is of the form |t|-δ, δ > 1, for large times t. Two interesting results are (1) The derivation of the ``golden rule'' from the discrete-state time-dependent perturbation theory presented in most text books of quantum mechanics leads to erroneous physical interpretations because the energy-level shift is ignored. (2) When considering scattering between states in the continuum, it is found that a characteristic feature of time-dependent interactions is a discrete momentum spectrum of final states which, in the relativistic case, leads to a mass spectrum. These spectra cannot be obtained using the S matrix.
It is shown how the semiclassical theory of path integrals can be implemented in a practical manner for the analysis of a potential that combines the two-state system of a double well potential (DWP) with decay into a continuous spectrum. This potential may correspond to a variety of physical situations in physics and chemistry. The structure of the formalism and of the results is such that it allows computation not only for analytic but also for numerically given potentials. The central theme is the determination of the energy-dependent Green’s function, which is shown to consist of a regular part and a part containing simple and double complex poles. These poles represent the position of the energy levels, as well as the energy widths and shifts due to the interaction with the continuous spectrum. When applied to the bound DWP without tunneling, the theory is shown to reduce in certain limits to known results from the Jeffreys–Wentzel–Kiamers–Bhrillouin approximation. If the system is taken to be prepared in the first well, the interactions with the remaining of the potential lead to two types of transition rates. One represents the transient motion toward a virtual equilibrium state of the DWP. It emerges as a positive imaginary part of the self-energy. The other represents the decay into the continuum and emerges as a negative imaginary part of the pole. Comparison of the two mechanisms of nonstationarity is made for different magnitudes of the second barrier relative to the first one. Since the system decays to the continuum while oscillating, the theory obtains a correction to the frequency of oscillation in the DWP due to the interaction with the continuum. This phenomenon is observable in real two-state systems, if an external perturbation which affects mainly one state converts it into a resonance state.