Semiclassical description of wave packet revival

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Oct;80(4 Pt 2):046218. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.046218. Epub 2009 Oct 27.

Abstract

We test the ability of semiclassical theory to describe quantitatively the revival of quantum wave packets-a long time phenomena-in the one dimensional quartic oscillator (a Kerr type Hamiltonian). Two semiclassical theories are considered: time-dependent WKB and Van Vleck propagation. We show that both approaches describe with impressive accuracy the autocorrelation function and wave function up to times longer than the revival time. Moreover, in the Van Vleck approach, we can show analytically that the range of agreement extends to arbitrary long times.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Nonlinear Dynamics*
  • Quantum Theory*