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Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física

Classical and quantum systems with position-dependent mass: An application to a Mathews-Lakshmanan-type oscillator

R. Santos, Pedro Pablo González‐Borrero

Published Jan 1, 2023• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Position-dependent mass (PDM) systems have diverse applications in physics, attracting significant scientific interest in the last decades. Classical PDM systems pose analytical challenges with their nonlinear equations of motion, while the quantum case is complicated because the kinetic operator is non-Hermitian. To address these challenges, this study explores Hamiltonian factorization and canonical transformations to investigate classical and quantum PDM systems, applying it to a Mathews-Lakshmanan-type oscillator with m⁢(x)=1/[1+(λ⁢x)2]. Classically, the phase space is examined, revealing increasingly pronounced deformities in the trajectories as energy and λ values increase. In the quantum realm, the solution to the ambiguous ordering problem for the PDM oscillator is presented, accompanied by an analysis of wave functions and probability densities. Further, the tunneling probabilities are analyzed. As λ increases, findings indicate that the tunneling probabilities of the PDM system decrease fast for higher excited states, offering novel insights into its behavior.

DOI
10.1590/1806-9126-rbef-2023-0172

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Position-dependent mass (PDM) systems have diverse applications in physics, attracting significant scientific interest in the last decades. Classical PDM systems pose analytical challenges with their nonlinear equations of motion, while the quantum case is complicated because the kinetic operator is non-Hermitian. To address these challenges, this study explores Hamiltonian factorization and canonical transformations to investigate classical and quantum PDM systems, applying it to a Mathews-Lakshmanan-type oscillator with m⁢(x)=1/[1+(λ⁢x)2]. Classically, the phase space is examined, revealing increasingly pronounced deformities in the trajectories as energy and λ values increase. In the quantum realm, the solution to the ambiguous ordering problem for the PDM oscillator is presented, accompanied by an analysis of wave functions and probability densities. Further, the tunneling probabilities are analyzed. As λ increases, findings indicate that the tunneling probabilities of the PDM system decrease fast for higher excited states, offering novel insights into its behavior.
We recycle Cruz et al.'s (Phys. Lett. A 369 (2007) 400) work on the classical and quantum position-dependent mass (PDM) oscillators. To elaborate on the ordering ambiguity, we properly amend some of the results reported in their work and discuss the classical and quantum mechanical correspondence for the PDM harmonic oscillators. We use a point canonical transformation and show that one unique quantum PDM oscillator Hamiltonian (consequently, one unique ordering-ambiguity parametric set j=l=-1/4 and k=-1/2) is obtained. To show that such a parametric set is not just a manifestation of the quantum PDM oscillator Hamiltonian, we consider the classical and quantum mechanical correspondence for quasi-free PDM particles moving under the influence of their own PDM force fields.
The Schrodinger equation with position-dependent mass (PDM) becomes one of interesting subjects in the study of quantum systems, because of its wide applications in many physical problems. Meanwhile, harmonic oscillator becomes important model in most physical problems. In this paper, analytical solutions of the PDM Schrodinger equation, i.e. energy eigenvalues En and eigenfunctions , of a one dimensional harmonic oscillator system using transformation method has been studied. The results showed that there was no difference between the energy eigenvalues, En of the harmonic oscillator systems with and without PDM, whereas it is not for the eigenfunctions,  of these two harmonic oscillator systems. This difference was due to the presence of dimensionless mass function  and the changes of x becomes  variable for the eigenfunctions of the harmonic oscillator system with PDM.  Moreover, the differences in the eigenfunctions will affect the dynamical properties of the quantum systems. It can be concluded that the harmonic oscillator system with PDM is the generalization of the harmonic oscillator system with constant mass.
Abstract The quantization of systems with a position dependent mass (PDM) is studied. We present a method that starts with the study of the existence of Killing vector fields for the PDM geodesic motion (Lagrangian with a PDM kinetic term but without any potential) and the construction of the associated Noether momenta. Then the method considers, as the appropriate Hilbert space, the space of functions that are square integrable with respect to a measure related with the PDM and, after that, it establishes the quantization, not of the canonical momenta p , but of the Noether momenta P instead. The quantum Hamiltonian, that depends on the Noether momenta, is obtained as an Hermitian operator defined on the PDM Hilbert space. In the second part several systems with position-dependent mass, most of them related with nonlinear oscillators, are quantized by making use of the method proposed in the first part.
We revisit the problem of the deformed oscillator with position-dependent mass [da Costa et al., J. Math. Phys. 62, 092101 (2021)] in the classical and quantum formalisms by introducing the effect of the mass function in both kinetic and potential energies. The resulting Hamiltonian is mapped into a Morse oscillator by means of a point canonical transformation from the usual phase space (x, p) to a deformed one (xγ, Πγ). Similar to the Morse potential, the deformed oscillator presents bound trajectories in phase space corresponding to an anharmonic oscillatory motion in classical formalism and, therefore, bound states with a discrete spectrum in quantum formalism. On the other hand, open trajectories in phase space are associated with scattering states and continuous energy spectrum. Employing the factorization method, we investigate the properties of the coherent states, such as the time evolution and their uncertainties. A fast localization, classical and quantum, is reported for the coherent states due to the asymmetrical position-dependent mass. An oscillation of the time evolution of the uncertainty relationship is also observed, whose amplitude increases as the deformation increases.
Abstract We analyze a general family of position-dependent mass (PDM) quantum Hamiltonians which are not self-adjoint and include, as particular cases, some Hamiltonians obtained in phenomenological approaches to condensed matter physics. We build a general family of self-adjoint Hamiltonians which are quantum mechanically equivalent to the non-self-adjoint proposed ones. Inspired by the probability density of the problem, we construct an ansatz for the solutions of the family of self-adjoint Hamiltonians. We use this ansatz to map the solutions of the time independent Schrödinger equations generated by the non-self-adjoint Hamiltonians into the Hilbert space of the solutions of the respective dual self-adjoint Hamiltonians. This mapping depends on both the PDM and on a function of position satisfying a condition that assures the existence of a consistent continuity equation. We identify the non-self-adjoint Hamiltonians here studied with a very general family of Hamiltonians proposed in a seminal article of Harrison (1961 Phys. Rev. 123 85 ) to describe varying band structures in different types of metals. Therefore, we have self-adjoint Hamiltonians that correspond to the non-self-adjoint ones found in Harrison’s article.