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Journal of Computational Physics

Time-integration of Gaussian variational approximation for the magnetic Schrödinger equation

Malik Scheifinger, Kurt Busch, Marlis Hochbruck, Caroline Lasser

Published Sep 5, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the present paper we consider the semiclassical magnetic Schrödinger equation, which describes the dynamics of charged particles under the influence of an electro-magnetic field. The solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is approximated by a single Gaussian wave packet via the time-dependent Dirac–Frenkel variational principle. For the approximation we use ordinary differential equations of motion for the parameters of the variational solution and extend the second-order Boris algorithm for classical mechanics to the quantum mechanical case. In addition, we propose a modified version of the classical fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Numerical experiments explore parameter convergence and geometric properties. Moreover, we benchmark against the analytical solution of the Penning trap.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcp.2025.114349

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In the present paper we consider the semiclassical magnetic Schrödinger equation, which describes the dynamics of charged particles under the influence of an electro-magnetic field. The solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is approximated by a single Gaussian wave packet via the time-dependent Dirac–Frenkel variational principle. For the approximation we use ordinary differential equations of motion for the parameters of the variational solution and extend the second-order Boris algorithm for classical mechanics to the quantum mechanical case. In addition, we propose a modified version of the classical fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Numerical experiments explore parameter convergence and geometric properties. Moreover, we benchmark against the analytical solution of the Penning trap.
In the present paper we consider the semiclassical magnetic Schrödinger equation, which describes the dynamics of charged particles under the influence of a electro-magnetic field. The solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is approximated by a single Gaussian wave packet via the time-dependent Dirac--Frenkel variational principle. For the approximation we use ordinary differential equations of motion for the parameters of the variational solution and extend the second-order Boris algorithm for classical mechanics to the quantum mechanical case. In addition, we propose a modified version of the classical fourth order Runge--Kutta method. Numerical experiments explore parameter convergence and geometric properties. Moreover, we benchmark against the analytical solution of the Penning trap.
In the present paper we consider the semiclassical magnetic Schrödinger equation, which describes the dynamics of particles under the influence of a magnetic field. The solution of the Schrödinger equation is approximated by Gaussian wave packets via the time-dependent variational formulation by Dirac and Frenkel. For the numerical approximation we derive ordinary differential equations for the parameters of the variational solution. Moreover, we prove L2L^2L2-error bounds and observable error bounds for the approximating Gaussian wave packet.
The wave packet dynamics in atomic systems and in Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated by means of a time-dependent variational principle. The wave packets are assumed to be parametrized by a set of time-dependent parameters. The time evolution of the parameters of the coupled Gaussian wave packets can be calculated from a set of ordinary differential equations, as obtained from the time-dependent variational principle. Unfortunately, the set of equations is ill-behaved in most practical applications, depending on the number of propagated Gaussian wave packets, and methods for regularization are needed. A general method for regularization based on applying adequate nonholonomic inequality constraints to the evolution of the parameters, keeping the equations of motion well-behaved is presented. The power of the method is demonstrated for a non-integrable system with two degrees of freedom. The Gaussian wave packet (GWP) method is applied to the three-dimensional hydrogen atom. The regularization based on the introduction of Kustaanheimo-Stiefel coordinates and a fictitious time is performed. The regularization implies a transition from the three-dimensional physical position space to a four-dimensional parameter space, spanned by the Kustaanheimo-Stiefel coordinates. The regularization is accompanied by a restriction on physically allowed wave functions. The Coulomb potential is transformed to a harmonic potential and GWPs are the exact solutions, provided they fulfill the restriction. The effect of the restriction on the four-dimensional GWP is discussed and it is shown that the GWPs can satisfy the restriction if the Gaussian parameter space is reduced in a certain way. The exact analytic evolution of the restricted GWP is presented, and the expansion of a localized initial wave function in the restricted Gaussian basis set and its analytic propagation in the fictitious time are shown. Symmetry subspaces with conserved magnetic quantum number m and with conserved angular momentum quantum numbers l,m are treated separately. The method is also applied to the non-integrable H atom in in a homogeneous magnetic field and in perpendicular external electric and magnetic fields. The evolution of the wave packets is determined by the constrained time-dependent variational principle. The numerical results are compared to numerically exact values and show excellent agreement. Another class of systems where the variational Gaussian wave packet method yields good results are cold gases. In this thesis Bose-Einstein condensates are investigated, where in addition to the common short-range contact interaction two different long-range interactions, viz. a laser induced gravity-like 1/r-interaction or a magnetic dipole-dipole interaction are present. The dynamics as resulting from the time-dependent extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation for Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive 1/r-interaction is investigated with both the GWP method and numerically exact calculations. It is shown that these condensates exhibit signatures known from the nonlinear dynamics of autonomous Hamiltonian systems. The two stationary solutions created in a tangent bifurcation at a critical value of the scattering length are identified as elliptical and hyperbolical fixed points, corresponding to stable and unstable stationary states of the condensate. The stable stationary state is surrounded by elliptical islands, corresponding to condensates periodically oscillating in time, whereas condensate wave functions in the unstable region undergo a collapse within finite time. For negative scattering lengths below the tangent bifurcation no stationary solutions exist, i.e., the condensate is always unstable and collapses. The dynamics of condensates with inter-atomic magnetic dipole-dipole interaction is investigated in the mean field limit using a Gaussian trial function. The anisotropy of the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction breaks the spherical symmetry and for ordered dipoles an effectively two-dimensional system with cylindrical symmetry is obtained. Special attention is payed to the regularity of the dynamics and it is shown that a transition from regular to chaotic motion takes place with increasing energy where regions of regular and chaotic motion coexist. It is shown that stable modes exist at energies high above the saddle point energy, i.e. at energies where a collapse of the condensate is expected.
For the case of uniform magnetic field and a potential quadratic in its coordinates an electron state originally represented by a Gaussian wave packet remains Gaussian in its subsequent evolution. Under these conditions the state is completely characterized by the first-and second-order quantum means, that is, quantities such as 〈qi〉〈{q}_{i}〉〈qi​〉, 〈pi〉〈{p}_{i}〉〈pi​〉 and 〈qipj〉〈{q}_{i}{p}_{j}〉〈qi​pj​〉, 〈pipj〉〈{p}_{i}{p}_{j}〉〈pi​pj​〉, respectively. A tensor-product relationship is shown to exist between the problem of the determination of the second- and first-order means which facilitates the solution. Two problems are treated in detail: (i) an isotropic wave packet in an isotropic potential well and (ii) the dynamics of a wave packet on a quadratic saddle point. In the former case, the wave packet "spins" and its radius pulsates as its mean follows the classical trajectory. In the second the magnetic field effect on tunneling through such barriers is studied and found to be small at attainable field strengths unless the effective electronic mass is very small. A method for the numerical solution for the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation, termed the particle method and based on the hydrodynamic analogy to that equation, is here extended to include magnetic fields. It is applied to the two problems just described and found to agree well with the analytical solutions.
Abstract We extend our previous work on symplectic semiclassical Gaussian wave packet dynamics to incorporate electromagnetic interactions by including a vector potential. The main advantage of our formulation is that the equations of motion derived are naturally Hamiltonian. We obtain an asymptotic expansion of our equations in terms of and show that our equations have corrections to those presented by Zhou, whereas ours also recover the equations of Zhou in the case of a linear vector potential and quadratic scalar potential. One and two dimensional examples of a particle in a magnetic field are given and numerical solutions are presented and compared with the classical solutions and the expectation values of the corresponding observables as calculated by the Egorov or initial value representation (IVR) method. We numerically demonstrate that the correction terms improve the accuracy of the classical or Zhou’s equations for short times in the sense that our solutions converge to the expectation values calculated using the Egorov/IVR method faster than the classical solutions or those of Zhou as .