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arXiv:quant-ph/9912079

New set of exactly solvable complex potentials giving the real energies

Miloslav Znojil

Published Dec 16, 1999• 1 citation
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Abstract

We deform the real potential of Poeschl and Teller by a shift of its coordinate in imaginary direction. We show that the new model remains exactly solvable. Its bound states are constructed in closed form. Wave functions are complex and proportional to Jacobi polynomials. Some of them diverge in the Hermitian limit. In contrast, all their energies prove real and shift-independent. In this sense the lost Hermiticity of our family of Hamiltonians seems replaced by their accidental PT symmetry.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/9912079

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We deform the real potential of Poeschl and Teller by a shift of its coordinate in imaginary direction. We show that the new model remains exactly solvable. Its bound states are constructed in closed form. Wave functions are complex and proportional to Jacobi polynomials. Some of them diverge in the Hermitian limit. In contrast, all their energies prove real and shift-independent. In this sense the lost Hermiticity of our family of Hamiltonians seems replaced by their accidental PT symmetry.
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Changes of coordinates represent one of the most effective ways of deriving solvable potentials from ordinary differential equations for separate special functions. Here we relax the standard Hermiticity requirement and find an innovative construction which leads to unusual, complex potentials. Their energy spectrum is shown to stay real after a weakening of the Hermiticity of the Schrödinger equation to its mere invariance under the combined (parity) and (time-reversal) symmetry. This ultimately results in richer bound-state spectra. Some of our new exactly solvable potentials generalize the current textbook models. Details are given for constructions based on the hypergeometric and confluent hypergeometric special functions.
We consider the interaction between the Hermitian world, represented by a real delta-function potential $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\delta}(x)$, and the non-Hermitian world, represented by a PT-symmetric pair of delta functions with imaginary coefficients $i\ensuremath{\beta}(\ensuremath{\delta}(x\ensuremath{-}L)\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}(x+L))$. In the context of standard quantum mechanics, the effect of the introduction of the imaginary delta functions on the bound-state energy of the real delta function and its associated wave function is small for LLL large. However, scattering from the combined potentials does not conserve probability as conventionally defined. Both these problems can be studied instead in the context of quasi-Hermiticity, whereby quantum mechanics is endowed with a new metric $\ensuremath{\eta}$, and consequently a new wave function $\ensuremath{\Psi}(x)$, defined in terms of the original wave function $\ensuremath{\psi}(x)$ by means of $\ensuremath{\eta}$. In this picture, working perturbatively in $\ensuremath{\beta}$, the bound-state wave function is actually unchanged from its unperturbed form for $|x|\ensuremath{\ll}L$. However, the scattering wave function, for $|x|\ensuremath{\gg}L$, is changed in a significant manner. In particular, there are incoming and outgoing waves on both sides of the potential. One can then no longer talk in terms of reflection and transmission coefficients, but the total right-moving flux is now conserved.