Strategy for time-dependent quantum-mechanical calculations using a Gaussian wave-packet representation of the wave function. Annual technical report

Technical Report · Sun Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:5728542

A methodology for performing time-dependent quantum-mechanical calculations is developed by representing the wave function as a sum of Gaussian wave packets (GWP) each characterized by a set of parameters such as width, position momentum, and phase. The problem of computing the time evolution of the wave function is thus reduced to that of finding the time evolution of the parameters in the Gaussians. The parameter motion is determined by minimizing the error made by replacing the exact wave function in the time-dependent Schroedinger equation with its Gaussian representation approximant. This leads to first-order differential equations for the time dependence of the parameters, and those describing the packet position and the momentum of each packet have some resemblance with the classical equations of motion. The paper studies numerically the strategy needed to achieve the best GWP representation of time-dependent processes. The issues discussed are the representation of the initial wave function, the numerical stability and the solution of the differential equations giving the evolution of the parameters, and the analysis of the final wave function. Extensive comparisons are made with an approximate method which assumes that the Gaussians are independent and their width is smaller than the length scale over which the potential changes.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Santa Barbara (USA). Quantum Inst.
• OSTI ID: 5728542
• Report Number(s): AD-A-166316/0/XAB; TR-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

657002* -- Theoretical & Mathematical Physics-- Classical & Quantum Mechanics
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIMENSIONS
EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
FUNCTIONS
LENGTH
MATHEMATICS
MECHANICS
MOTION
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
STABILITY
TIME DEPENDENCE
WAVE FUNCTIONS
WAVE PACKETS