Wave-packet evolution in non-Hermitian quantum systems

Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.060101· OSTI ID:21550009

Graefe, Eva-Maria ^[1]; Schubert, Roman ^[2]

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1. Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)
2. Department of Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TW (United Kingdom)

The quantum evolution of the Wigner function for Gaussian wave packets generated by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is investigated. In the semiclassical limit ({h_bar}/2{pi}){yields}0 this yields the non-Hermitian analog of the Ehrenfest theorem for the dynamics of observable expectation values. The lack of Hermiticity reveals the importance of the complex structure on the classical phase space: The resulting equations of motion are coupled to an equation of motion for the phase-space metric - a phenomenon having no analog in Hermitian theories.

• OSTI ID: 21550009
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.060101; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
HAMILTONIANS
METRICS
PHASE SPACE
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
WAVE PACKETS
WIGNER THEORY
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MECHANICS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
QUANTUM OPERATORS
SPACE