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Journal of Mathematical Physics

An application of Heun functions in the quantum mechanics of a constrained particle

Alexandre G. M. Schmidt, Matheus E. Pereira

Published Apr 1, 2023• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Using the thin-layer quantization, we formulate the problem of a Schrödinger particle constrained to move along a coordinate surface of the bi-spherical coordinate system. In three-dimensional space, the free Schrödinger equation is not separable in this coordinate system. However, when we consider the equation for a particle constrained to a given surface, there are only two degrees of freedom. One has to introduce a geometrical potential to attach the particle to the surface. This well-known potential has two contributions: one from Gauss’ curvature and the other from the mean curvature. The Schrödinger equation leads to a general Heun equation. We solve it exactly and present the eigenfunctions and plots of the probability densities, and, as an application of this methodology, we study the problem of an electric charge propagating along these coordinate surfaces in the presence of a uniform magnetic field.

DOI
10.1063/5.0135385

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We derive the Schrödinger equation for a spinless charged particle constrained to move on a curved surface in the presence of an electric and magnetic field. The particle is confined on the surface using a thin-layer procedure, which gives rise to the well-known geometric potential. The electric and magnetic fields are included via the four potential. We find that there is no coupling between the fields and the surface curvature and that, with a proper choice of the gauge, the surface and transverse dynamics are exactly separable. Finally, we derive an analytic form of the Hamiltonian for spherical, cylindrical, and toroidal surfaces.
We derive the Schrödinger equation of a particle constrained to move on a rotating curved surface S. Using the thin-layer quantization scheme to confine the particle on S, and with a proper choice of gauge transformation for the wave function, we obtain the well-known geometric potential V g and an additive Coriolis-induced geometric potential in the co-rotational curvilinear coordinates. This novel effective potential, which is included in the surface Schrödinger equation and is coupled with the mean curvature of S, contains an imaginary part in the general case which gives rise to a non-Hermitian surface Hamiltonian. We find that the non-Hermitian term vanishes when S is a minimal surface or a revolution surface which is axially symmetric around the rolling axis.
We derive the Pauli equation for a charged spin particle confined to move on a spatially curved surface S\mathcal{S}S in an electromagnetic field. Using the thin-layer quantization scheme to constrain the particle on S\mathcal{S}S, and in the transformed spinor representations, we obtain the well-known geometric potential Vg{V}_{g}Vg​ and the presence of ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}i\ensuremath{\varphi}}$, which can generate additive spin connection geometric potentials by the curvilinear coordinates derivatives, and we find that the two fundamental evidences in the literature [Giulio Ferrari and Giampaolo Cuoghi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 230403 (2008)] are still valid in the present system without source current perpendicular to S\mathcal{S}S. Finally, we apply the surface Pauli equation to spherical, cylindrical, and toroidal surfaces, in which we obtain expectantly the geometric potentials and new spin connection geometric potentials, and find that only the normal Pauli matrix appears in these equations.
Abstract A fundamental problem regarding the Dirac quantization of a free particle on an ( ) curved hypersurface embedded in N flat space is the impossibility to give the same form of the curvature‐induced quantum potential, the geometric potential as commonly called, as that given by the Schrödinger equation method where the particle moves in a region confined by a thin‐layer sandwiching the surface. This problem is resolved by means of a previously proposed scheme that hypothesizes a simultaneous quantization of positions, momenta, and Hamiltonian, among which the operator‐ordering‐free section is identified and is then found sufficient to lead to the expected form of geometric potential.
We discuss the dynamics of a classical spinless quantum particle carrying electric charge and constrained to move on a nonsingular static surface in ordinary three-dimensional space in the presence of arbitrary configurations of time independent electric currents. Starting from the canonical action in the embedding space we show that a charged particle with charge qqq couples to a term linear in qA3Mq{A}^{3}MqA3M, where A3{A}^{3}A3 is the transverse component of the electromagnetic vector potential and MMM is the mean curvature in the surface. This term cancels exactly a curvature contribution to the orbital magnetic moment of the particle. It is shown that particles, independently of the value of the charge, in addition to the known couplings to the geometry also couple to the mean curvature in the surface when a Neumann type of constraint is applied on the transverse fluctuations of the wave function. In contrast to a Dirichlet constraint on the transverse fluctuations a Neumann type of constraint on these degrees of freedom will in general make the equations of motion nonseparable. The exceptions are the equations of motion for electrically neutral particles on surfaces with constant mean curvature. In the presence of electric currents the equation of motion of a charged particle is generally nonseparable independently of the coupling to the geometry and the boundary constraints.
The geometric potential in quantum mechanics has been attracted attention recently, providing a formalism to investigate the influence of curvature in the context of low-dimensional systems. In this paper, we study the consequences of a helicoidal geometry in the Schrödinger equation dealing with an anisotropic mass tensor. In particular, we solve the problem of an harmonic oscillator in this scenario. For some specific conditions, we determine the wavefunction in terms of Confluent Heun Functions and compute the respective energy. The system exhibit several different behaviors, depending on the adjustment on the mass components.