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arXiv:math-ph/0509027 · Cubo

Quadratic Quantum Hamiltonians revisited

Monique Combescure, Robert, Didier

Published Sep 13, 2005• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Time dependent quadratic Hamiltonians are well known as well in classical mechanics and in quantum mechanics. In particular for them the correspondance between classical and quantum mechanics is exact. But explicit formulas are non trivial (like the Mehler formula). Moreover, a good knowlege of quadratic Hamiltonians is very useful in the study of more general quantum Hamiltonians and associated Schrödinger equations in the semiclassical regime. Our goal here is to give our own presentation of this important subject. We put emphasis on computations with Gaussian coherent states. Our main motivation to do that is application concerning revivals and Loschmidt echo.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.math-ph/0509027

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Time dependent quadratic Hamiltonians are well known as well in classical mechanics and in quantum mechanics. In particular for them the correspondance between classical and quantum mechanics is exact. But explicit formulas are non trivial (like the Mehler formula). Moreover, a good knowlege of quadratic Hamiltonians is very useful in the study of more general quantum Hamiltonians and associated Schrödinger equations in the semiclassical regime. Our goal here is to give our own presentation of this important subject. We put emphasis on computations with Gaussian coherent states. Our main motivation to do that is application concerning revivals and Loschmidt echo.
Explicitly time-dependent Hamiltonians are ubiquitous in applications of quantum theory. It is therefore necessary to solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation directly. The system’s dynamics is associated with a unitary time-evolution operator (a propagator), formally given as an infinite Dyson series. Time-dependent observables are invariant under unitary time-dependent transformations, where it is sometimes useful to transform the time-evolution from the states into the corresponding operators. This is carried out in part (in full) by transforming to the interaction (Heisenberg) picture. The corresponding equations of motion for the time-dependent operators are introduced. For quadratic potential energy functions, the time evolution of quantum expectation values coincides with the corresponding classical dynamics. This is demonstrated and analyzed in detail for Gaussian wave packets and a coherent state. Finally, we derive exact and approximate expressions for time-dependent transition probabilities and transition rates between quantum states. The validity of time-dependent perturbation theory is analyzed by comparison to exact dynamics.
The aim of this chapter is to construct the quantum unitary propagator for Hamiltonians which are quadratic in position and momentum with time-dependent coefficients. We show that the quantum evolution is exactly solvable in terms of the classical flow which is linear. This allows to construct the metaplectic transformations which are unitary operators in L2(Rn)L^2(\mathbb R^n)L2(Rn) corresponding to symplectic transformations. Simple examples of such metaplectic transformations are the Fourier transform, which corresponds to the symplectic matrix J defined in (3.4) and the propagator of the harmonic oscillator, corresponding to rotations in the phase space. The main results of this chapter are computations of the quantum evolution operators for quadratic Hamiltonians acting on coherent states. We show that the time evolved coherent states are still Gaussian states which are recognized to be squeezed states centered at the classical phase space point (see Chap. 8). From these computations we can deduce most of properties concerning quantum quadratic Hamiltonians. In particular we get the explicit form of the Weyl symbols of the metaplectic transformations. These formulae are generalizations of the Mehler formula for the harmonic oscillator. Quadratic Hamiltonians are very important in quantum mechanics because more general Hamiltonians can be considered as non trivial perturbations of time dependent quadratic ones as we shall see in Chap. 5.
The idea of coherent states has proved very useful in the study of the quantum nature of electromagnetic radiation. Coherent states are also interesting because their evolution in time comes closest to classical dynamics. So they are the best approximation in quantum mechanics to classical behaviour. In recent years, attempts have been made to generalize the concept of coherent states to systems other than those made up of the simple harmonic oscillator (such as light). In one such attempt, Klauder introduces a set of physical criteria that generalized coherent states should have (Klauder J R 1996 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 29 L293). These criteria have been applied to the hydrogen atom and several other systems. In this paper, we apply Klauder's criteria to identify generalized coherent states for the quadratic Hamiltonian H = (f1a†a + f*2a2 + f2a†2). We check if two-photon coherent states of light satisfy these criteria. We find that they do not, which is expected: their non-classical properties are well known. We then use Klauder's criteria to find a set of states that are associated with the quadratic Hamiltonian. We find that these states too display non-classical behaviour even for large values of the quantum numbers. This non-classical behaviour is revealed in the form of sub-Poisson photon statistics. We will also briefly consider the one-photon Hamiltonian, apply Klauder's criteria to it and comment on its statistics.
Through semiclassical methods the subject of quantum chaos motivates and depends on Hamiltonian chaos research. Presented here is a selection of some of the most important Hamiltonian chaos topics that in this way get directly related to any of a variety of quantum chaos research problems. The overall emphasis is on intuitive explanations and illustrations of various ideas with the references containing more mathematically rigorous expositions. The chapter begins with a description of various useful theoretical and computational tools of chaos research, e.g.~surfaces of section, paradigms of chaos, stability analysis, and symbolic dynamics... This is followed by discussions regarding the geometry of chaos, how chaotic systems respond to perturbations, and the complexification of Hamiltonian dynamics. Most of the contents concern topics that are long established and well known by now. The exceptions involve complications that arise from the complexification of phase space variables and time. There are relatively recent results summarized regarding the appropriate branches of determinant phases and how to distinguish complex trajectories that are associated with classically allowed processes versus those associated with non-allowed ones.
It is by now well recognized how the quantum time evolution for time-dependent Hamiltonians that are quadratic both in position and momentum variables generates ‘‘squeezing.’’ On the other hand, ‘‘squeezed states’’ and their ‘‘high-n generalizations’’ are known to provide a simple classical mechanical description of general quantum time evolution. In this paper, these ideas are combined to show the relevance of ‘‘generalized squeezed states’’ in the semiclassical limit of the evolution of time-dependent wave packets for general time-dependent Hamiltonians, including the multidimensional case.