This chapter explains why Hamilton's principal function plays such an important role in the quantum propagator. It motivates the reader by touching on the fundamental aspects, as well as by describing some of the exciting experiments in the field. The chapter describes the classical motion of the electron in the magnetic field, displaying its ergodic character on what is called a 'Poincaré surface of section' of the phase-space. It discusses three recent experiments involving the transport properties of electrons in high-mobility semiconductor microstructures that show the imprint of chaotic orbits in conductance measurements. The connection of the old quantum theory to quantum mechanics is limited to the role of the periodic orbits in the quantization condition. In post-Bohr quantum mechanics, formulated by the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg and the wave equation of Schrödinger, the connection to classical periodic orbits is not at all apparent.
This chapter explains why Hamilton's principal function plays such an important role in the quantum propagator. It motivates the reader by touching on the fundamental aspects, as well as by describing some of the exciting experiments in the field. The chapter describes the classical motion of the electron in the magnetic field, displaying its ergodic character on what is called a 'Poincaré surface of section' of the phase-space. It discusses three recent experiments involving the transport properties of electrons in high-mobility semiconductor microstructures that show the imprint of chaotic orbits in conductance measurements. The connection of the old quantum theory to quantum mechanics is limited to the role of the periodic orbits in the quantization condition. In post-Bohr quantum mechanics, formulated by the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg and the wave equation of Schrödinger, the connection to classical periodic orbits is not at all apparent.
This chapter discusses in some detail the connection between the classical and quantum mechanical equations of motion, largely using examples that are solvable. It recounts how the old quantum theory was formulated by quantizing the action. Choosing irreducible cycles around the tori leads naturally to defining the action and angle variables of motion, and the quantization of action around each cycle. The chapter shows that families of these periodic orbits contribute to the oscillating part of the density of states of an integrable system in the form of a trace formula. It discusses the transition from integrability to chaos in such systems when perturbations are added that couple resonantly to these natural frequencies. The chapter elaborates with a view to develop the semiclassical approximation, and the associated quantization condition. It brings out the similarity between the Schrodinger equation of wave mechanics, and the HJ equation.
Chapter 3 provides a brief review of a few concepts from classical Newtonian physics, and how this fails to explain phenomena at the nanoscopic scale. As is detailed within, the classical mechanical model is able to describe all observed physical phenomena; however, when it comes to the nanoscale this model breaks down, because the properties of the materials change dramatically. At this scale, the surface-to-volume ratio increases, gravitational forces become negligible and random molecular motion becomes more important. This changes the properties of the material and affects the devices that are fabricated at this scale. It is hence necessary to develop a new model that can explain such physical phenomena. This has led to a new branch of physics, i.e. quantum physics (QP) or quantum mechanics, which is able to explain the behavior observed at nanoscale. QP enables us to explain phenomena such as the photoelectric effect, Compton effect. etc. In this chapter, we introduce quantum mechanics and how it evolved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Further, light’s behaviour as a particle as well as a wave is described by the photoelectric effect and Young’s double-slit experiment, respectively. Further, the dual nature of the particle is explained using the de Broglie principle. Schrodinger’s equation is then explained, which gives the probability of finding a subatomic-scale particle at a certain position in a quantum well. In addition to the formulation of Schrodinger’s equation, its solution, the concept of a potential well, the characteristics of the wave function and its interpretation and significance, and, finally, the application of Schrodinger’s equation in the structure of an atom form subsequent parts of this chapter. The equation serves as a basis with which to understand band theory. Band theory explains the difference between conductors, insulators and semiconductors. Materials are distinguished according to the differences in their band gaps. Adding impurities or varying temperature changes the band gap in semiconductors, which consequently changes the properties of the semiconductor and its electrical conduction. One more important measure to understand and exploit the properties and behaviour of materials is Fermi–Dirac statistics. It is useful to acquire the probability of electrons at a given energy level at a specific temperature. These concepts can be utilised by physicists and chip makers to make more energy-efficient devices. Hence, this chapter details the fundamentals of quantum physics and how they relate to the electrical properties of nanodevices.
Einstein (1917) appreciated early on that within the “old” pre-1925/26 quantum mechanics absence of integrability is a serious obstacle for the quantization of classical systems. Therefore, in retrospect not surprisingly, the quantization problem was not adequately solved until the advent of the “new” quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan and Schrödinger. The new quantum mechanics did not rely at all on the notion of classical paths, and this way, unwittingly, sidestepped the chaos problem. Within the framework of the new theory, any classical system can be quantized, including classically chaotic systems. But while the quantization of integrable systems is straightforward, the quantization of classically chaotic systems, even today, presents a formidable technical challenge. This is especially true for quantization in the semiclassical regime, where the quantum numbers involved are large. In fact, efficient semiclassical quantization rules for chaotic systems were not known until Gutzwiller (1971, 1990) intoduced periodic orbit expansions. Gutzwiller's method is discussed in Section 4.1.3 below. It is important to emphasize here that the existence of chaos in certain classical systems in no way introduces conceptual problems into the framework of modern quantum theory, although, let it be emphasized again, chaos came back with a vengeance from the “old” days of quantum mechanics. Even given all the modern day computer power accessible to the “practitioner” of quantum mechanics, chaos is the ultimate reason for the slow progress in the numerical computation of even moderately excited states in such important, but chaotic problems as the helium atom.
Quantum theory has formed a cornerstone for modern physics, engineering, and chemistry since the 1920s. It has found significant modern applications in engineering since the development of the semiconductor diode, transistor, and especially the laser in the 1960s. Not until the 1980s did the fabrication and materials growth technology become sufficiently developed to provide the ability to (1) produce quantum well devices (such as quantum well lasers) and (2) engineer the optical and electrical properties of materials (band-gap engineering). One purpose of this chapter is to summarize a small portion of modern quantum theory. The first few sections of this chapter summarize Lagrange and Hamilton’s approach to classical mechanics. These alternate formulations to Newton’s formulation of classical mechanics allow us to use scalar quantities such as kinetic or potential energy to find the equations of motion. These alternate formulations are so powerful that they can be used to deduce Maxwell’s and other continuous field equations. In fact, the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian comes from the classical one by substituting operators for the classical dynamical variables. The chapter discusses the connection between linear algebra and quantum mechanics and reviews the basic theory. The discussion of the harmonic oscillator introduces the ladder operators and vacuum state, and prepares the way for the harmonic oscillator theory of the electromagnetic field encounter in quantum optics. The chapter includes quantum mechanical representation theory along with the time dependent perturbation theory. The density operator plays a central role in emission and absorption theory.
In the preceding chapters we have learnt that random matrix theory is perfectly able to explain the universal properties of the spectra of chaotic systems, and this in spite of the oversimplifying assumptions applied. On the one hand it is very satisfactory that one single theory can cope with such a variety of systems as nuclei, mesoscopic structures, or microwave billiards, on the other hand this is a bit disappointing. If there is no possibility of discriminating between the spectra of a nucleus and a quantum dot, then there is little hope of learning anything of relevance about it. Fortunately, random matrix theory is only one side of the coin. We have already come across some examples demonstrating its limits of validity. Remember the spectral level dynamics where bouncing balls disturbed the otherwise universal Gaussian velocity distribution (see Section 5.2.2). Another example is the scarring phenomenon observed in many wave functions. Here obviously closed classical orbits have left their fingerprints in the amplitude patterns. We cannot expect that the universal random matrix theory can correctly account for individual features such as periodic orbits. We now come to an alternative approach to analysing the spectra. As we know from the correspondence principle, in the semiclassical limit quantum mechanics eventually turns into classical mechanics. That is why classical dynamics must be hidden somewhere in the spectra, at least in the limit of high quantum numbers. In the introduction we have already discussed this connection for a particle in a one-dimensional box.
This chapter begins by exploiting the Einstein–de Broglie relation and the notion of symbol, as defined in Eq. (3.6.6). The following steps are the local and global conservation laws associated to the Schrödinger equation, the probabilistic interpretation of the wave function, the spreading of wave packets and transformation properties of wave functions. The solution of the Schrödinger equation for a given initial condition is then studied. For this purpose, one first expands the initial condition in terms of eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian operator. This is then ‘propagated’ to determine the evolution of the wave function. Thus, one is led to consider the Green kernel of the Schrödinger equation, and the boundary conditions on the wave function that lead to complete knowledge of stationary states. A dynamics involving an isometric non-unitary operator is also studied. The chapter ends with an elementary introduction to harmonic oscillators and to the JWKB method in wave mechanics, plus examples on the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization. From classical to wave mechanics The correspondence between differential operators and polynomials in k relies on the notion of the symbol defined in Eq. (3.6.6). Now we are aiming to pass from a function on phase space, i.e. the classical Hamiltonian, to an operator which, by analogy, is called the Hamiltonian operator. Such a transition is non-trivial because the map from symbols to operators contains some ambiguity. Such a transition is always possible if polynomials in p have constant coefficients. When this is not the case, i.e. if the coefficients are functions on the configuration space, there is an obvious ambiguity in the association of an operator with xp or px , for instance.