Using the fact that the energy eigenstates of the equilateral triangle infinite well (or billiard) are available in closed form, we examine the connections between the energy eigenvalue spectrum and the classical closed paths in this geometry, using both periodic orbit theory and the short-term semi-classical behavior of wave packets. We also discuss wave packet revivals and show that there are exact revivals, for all wave packets, at times given by
Trev=9mua2/4hbarpi where
a and
mu are the length of one side and the mass of the point particle respectively. We find additional cases of exact revivals with shorter revival times for zero-momentum wave packets initially located at special symmetry points inside the billiard. Finally, we discuss simple variations on the equilateral (
60circ−60circ−60circ) triangle, such as the half equilateral (
30circ−60circ−90circ) triangle and other `foldings', which have related energy spectra and revival structures.
We examine the long-term time dependence of Gaussian wave packets in a circular infinite well (billiard) system and find that there are approximate revivals. For the special case of purely
m=0 states (central wave packets with no momentum) the revival time is ${T}_{\mathrm{rev}}^{(m=0)}=8\ensuremath{\mu}{R}^{2}/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\pi},$ where $\ensuremath{\mu}$ is the mass of the particle, and the revivals are almost exact. For all other wave packets, we find that ${T}_{\mathrm{rev}}^{(m\ensuremath{\ne}0)}=({\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}{/2)T}_{\mathrm{rev}}^{(m=0)}\ensuremath{\approx}{5T}_{\mathrm{rev}}^{(m=0)}$ and the nature of the revivals becomes increasingly approximate as the average angular momentum or number of $m\ensuremath{\ne}0$ states is increased. The dependence of the revival structure on the initial position, energy, and angular momentum of the wave packet and the connection to the energy spectrum is discussed in detail. The results are also compared to two other highly symmetrical two-dimensional infinite well geometries with exact revivals, namely, the square and equilateral triangle billiards. We also show explicitly how the classical periodicity for closed orbits in a circular billiard arises from the energy eigenvalue spectrum, using a WKB analysis.
The use of wave packet to analyze the dynamics of quantum mechanical systems is an increasingly important method to the study of the classical-quantum correspondence.Using the quantum Gaussian wave packet analysis method,we calculate the autocorrelation function of the rectangular billiard,the peak positions of the autocorrelation function match well with the periods of the classical periodic orbits,which show that the period of the classical orbits can be produced by the time-dependent quantum wave packet method.We also discuss wave packet revivals and fractional revivals in the rectangular billiard,the results show that there are exact revival for all wave packet at each revival time.We find additional cases of exact revivals with short revival times for zero-momentum wave packets initially located at special symmetry point inside the billiard.