We present a new semiclassical method that yields an approximation to the quantum mechanical wavefunction at a fixed, predetermined position. In the approach, a hierarchy of ODEs are solved along a trajectory with zero velocity. The new approximation is local, both literally and from a quantum mechanical point of view, in the sense that neighboring trajectories do not communicate with each other. The approach is readily extended to imaginary time propagation and is particularly useful for the calculation of quantities where only local information is required. We present two applications: the calculation of tunneling probabilities and the calculation of low energy eigenvalues. In both applications we obtain excellent agrement with the exact quantum mechanics, with a single trajectory propagation.
We provide a semiclassical description of the double-slit experiment based on momentous quantum mechanics, where the implementation of canonical variables facilitate the derivation of the equations of motion for the system. We show the evolution of individual particles and their semiclassical trajectories, collectively reproduce the well-known quantum interference pattern. It is found that the non-crossing rule for trajectories, present in Bohmian mechanics, is not required under our treatment. We are able to follow classical configuration variables from this semiclassical scheme, and discuss …
We consider the open two-site Bose-Hubbard dimer, a well-known quantum mechanical model that has been realised recently for photons in two coupled photonic crystal nanocavities. The system is described by a Lindblad master equation which, for large numbers of photons, gives rise to a limiting semiclassical model in the form of a four-dimensional vector field. From the situation where both sites trap the same amount of photons under symmetric pumping, one encounters a transition that involves symmetry breaking, the creation of periodic oscillations and multistability as the pump strength is inc…
The relativistic semiclassical evolution of the position of an electron in the presence of an external electromagnetic field is studied in terms of a Newton equation that incorporates spin effects directly. This equation emerges from the Dirac equation and allows the identification of scenarios where spin effects are necessary to understand the main characteristics of the electron trajectories. It involves the eigenvalues of the non-Hermitian operator $Σ_{μν}F^{μν}$ with $Σ_{μν}$ and $F^{μν}$ as the spin and electromagnetic tensors. The formalism allows a deeper understanding on the physics be…
The family of trajectories-based approximations employed in computational quantum physics and chemistry is very diverse. For instance, Bohmian and Heller's frozen Gaussian semiclassical trajectories seem to have nothing in common. Based on a hydrodynamic analogy to quantum mechanics, we furnish the unified gauge theory of all such models. In the light of this theory, currently known methods are just a tip of the iceberg, and there exists an infinite family of yet unexplored trajectory-based approaches. Specifically, we show that each definition for a semiclassical trajectory corresponds to a s…
We study the quantum tunnel effect through a potential barrier employing a semiclassical formulation of quantum mechanics based on expectation values of configuration variables and quantum dispersions as dynamical variables. The evolution of the system is given in terms of a dynamical system for which we are able to determine effective trajectories for individual particles, in a total resemblance of the Bohmian description of quantum mechanics. We obtain a type of semiclassical confinement for particles in a similar way as with the quantum potential, and also determine a semiclassical transmis…
Using phase-space complexification, an Initial Value Representation (IVR) for the semiclassical propagator in position space is obtained as a composition of inverse Segal-Bargmann (S-B) transforms of the semiclassical coherent state propagator. The result is shown to be free of caustic singularities and identical to the Herman-Kluk (H-K) propagator, found ubiquitously in physical and chemical applications. We contrast the theoretical aspects of this particular IVR with the van Vleck-Gutzwiller (vV-G) propagator and one of its IVRs, often employed in order to evade the non-linear "root-search" …
In this work, we consider two spins initially prepared in a product of coherent states and study their entanglement dynamics due to a general interacting Hamiltonian. We adopt an approach that allowed the derivation of a semiclassical formula for the linear entropy of the reduced density operator, assumed as an entanglement quantifier. The resulting expression depends on sets of four trajectories, originated from the underlying classical description, and having mutually connected final phase-space points. Such classical elements, which are capable to reproduce the quantum entanglement even for…
The "dynamical mismatch" observed in quantum systems in the semiclassical regime challenge the Pilot wave model. Indeed the dynamics and properties of such systems depend on the trajectories of the classically equivalent system, whereas the de Broglie-Bohm trajectories are generically non-classical.\ In this work we examine the situation for the model favoured by de Broglie, the theory of the Double Solution (DS). We will see that the original DS model applied to semiclassical systems is also prone to the dynamical mismatch.\ However we will argue that the DS theory can be modified in order to…
Semiclassical effective description of a quantum particle on a sphere with non-central potential
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa（墨西哥城自治大学-夸希马尔帕分校）；Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua（奇瓦瓦自治大学）；Friedrich Schiller University Jena（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学）
A general semiclassical method in phase space based on the final value representation of the Wigner function is considered that bypasses caustics and the need to root-search for classical trajectories. We demonstrate its potential by applying the method to the Kerr Hamiltonian, for which the exact quantum evolution is punctuated by a sequence of intricate revival patterns. The structure of such revival patterns, lying far beyond the Ehrenfest time, is semiclassically reproduced and revealed as a consequence of constructive and destructive interferences of classical trajectories.
Semiclassical methods are extremely important in the subjects of wave packet and coherent state dynamics. Unfortunately, these essentially saddle point approximations are considered nearly impossible to carry out in detail for systems with multiple degrees of freedom due to the difficulties of solving the resulting two-point boundary value problems. However, recent developments have extended the applicability to a broader range of systems and circumstances. The most important advances are first to generate a set of real reference trajectories using appropriately reduced dimensional spaces of i…
We introduce an improved semiclassical dynamics approach to quantum vibrational spectroscopy. In this method, a harmonic-based phase space sampling is preliminarily driven toward non-harmonic quantization by slowly switching on the actual potential. The new coordinates and momenta serve as initial conditions for the semiclassical dynamics calculation, leading to a substantial decrease in the number of chaotic trajectories to deal with. Applications are presented for model and molecular systems of increasing dimensionality characterized by moderate or high chaoticity. They include a bidimension…
An initial coherent state is propagated exactly by a kicked quantum Hamiltonian and its associated classical stroboscopic map. The classical trajectories within the initial state are regular for low kicking strengths, then bifurcate and become mainly chaotic as the kicking parameter is increased. Time-evolution is tracked using classical, quantum and semiclassical Wigner functions, obtained via the Herman-Kluk propagator. Quantitative comparisons are also included and carried out from probability marginals and autocorrelation functions. Sub-Planckian classical structure such as small stability…
We derive semiclassical equations of motion for an accelerated wavepacket in a two-band system. We show that these equations can be formulated in terms of the static band geometry described by the quantum metric. We consider the specific cases of the Rashba Hamiltonian with and without a Zeeman term. The semiclassical trajectories are in full agreement with the ones found by solving the Schrödinger equation. This formalism successfully describes the adiabatic limit and the anomalous Hall effect traditionally attributed to Berry curvature. It also describes the opposite limit of coherent band s…
Classically integrable approximants are here constructed for a family of predominantly chaotic periodic systems by means of the Baker-Hausdorff-Campbell formula. We compare the evolving wave density for the corresponding exact quantum systems using semiclassical approximations based alternatively on the chaotic and on the integrable trajectories. It is found that the latter reproduce the quantum oscillations and provide superior approximations even when the initial coherent state is placed in a broad chaotic region. Time regimes are then accessed in which the propagation based on the system's …
It is widely recognized that entanglement generation and dynamical chaos are intimately related in semiclassical models via the process of decoherence. In this work, we propose a unifying framework which directly connects the bipartite and multipartite entanglement growth to the quantifiers of classical and quantum chaos. In the semiclassical regime, the dynamics of the von Neumann entanglement entropy, the spin squeezing, the quantum Fisher information and the out-of-time-order square commutator are governed by the divergence of nearby phase-space trajectories via the local Lyapunov spectrum,…
