Simple one-dimensional quantum-mechanical model for a particle attached to a surface

Mesoscopic Mechanical Resonators as Quantum Non-Inertial Reference Frames

An atom attached to a micrometer-scale wire that is vibrating at a frequency of 100 MHz and with displacement amplitude 1 nm experiences an acceleration magnitude 10^9 ms^-2, approaching the surface gravity of a neutron star. As one application of such extreme non-inertial forces in a mesoscopic setting, we consider a model two-path atom interferometer with one path consisting of the 100 MHz vibrating wire atom guide. The vibrating wire guide serves as a non-inertial reference frame and induces an in principle measurable phase shift in the wave function of an atom traversing the wire frame. We…

Symmetric Triple Well with Non-Equivalent Vacua: Simple Quantum Mechanical Approach

The structure of the energy levels in a deep triple well is analyzed using simple quantum mechanical considerations. The resultant spectra of the first three energy levels are found to be composed of a ground state localized at the central well and the two other states are distributed only among the left and right well in anti-symmetric and symmetric way respectively. Due to the tunneling effects the energy eigenvalue of the ground state is approximately equal to the ground state energy for a harmonic oscillator localized at the central well, while the two others are nearly degenerate with app…

Quantum Mechanical Hysteresis and the Electron Transfer Problem

We study a simple quantum mechanical symmetric donor-acceptor model for electron transfer (ET) with coupling to internal deformations. The model contains several basic properties found in biological ET in enzymes and photosynthetic centers; it produces tunnelling with hysteresis thus providing a simple explanation for the slowness of the reversed rate and the near 100% efficiency of ET in many biological systems. The model also provides a conceptual framework for the development of molecular electronics memory elements based on electrostatic architectures.

从量子力学粒子椭圆路径上推导出的两个简单模型

Two simple models derived from a quantum-mechanical particle on an elliptical path

研究从量子力学粒子椭圆路径推导出的两个模型，第一个非厄米特算符等价于厄米特算符，具有双重简并；第二个厄米特算符无简并，能级在微扰理论中分裂，两者均可通过对称点群描述。

A possible experimental test to decide if quantum mechanical randomness is due to deterministic chaos in the underlying dynamics

A simple experiment using radioactive decay is proposed to test the possibility of a determinsistic, but chaotic, origin of quantum mechanical randomness.

Calculating and visualizing the density of states for simple quantum mechanical systems

We present a graphical approach to understanding the degeneracy, density of states, and cumulative state number for some simple quantum systems. By taking advantage of basic computing operations we define a straightforward procedure for determining the relationship between discrete quantum energy levels and the corresponding density of states and cumulative level number. The density of states for a particle in a rigid box of various shapes and dimensions is examined and graphed. It is seen that the dimension of the box, rather than its shape, is the most important feature. In addition, we look…

Alternative solution to a quantum-mechanical four-particle system in one dimension

We propose an alternative solution to a quantum-mechanical four-particle system in one dimension with two- and three-particle interactions. The solution of the eigenvalue equation in center-of-mass and Jacobi coordinates is considerably simpler than a procedure proposed recently based on spherical coordinates.

Quantum-Mechanical interpretation of Riemann zeta function zeros

We demonstrate that the Riemann zeta function zeros define the position and the widths of the resonances of the quantised Artin dynamical system. The Artin dynamical system is defined on the fundamental region of the modular group on the Lobachevsky plane. It has a finite volume and an infinite extension in the vertical direction that correspond to a cusp. In classical regime the geodesic flow in the fundamental region represents one of the most chaotic dynamical systems, has mixing of all orders, Lebesgue spectrum and non-zero Kolmogorov entropy. In quantum-mechanical regime the system can be…

A simple and quantum-mechanically motivated characterization of the formally real Jordan algebras

Quantum theory's Hilbert space apparatus in its finite-dimensional version is nearly reconstructed from four simple and quantum-mechanically motivated postulates for a quantum logic. The reconstruction process is not complete, since it excludes the two-dimensional Hilbert space and still includes the exceptional Jordan algebras, which are not part of the Hilbert space apparatus. Options for physically meaningful potential generalizations of the apparatus are discussed.

The optomechanical instability in the quantum regime

We consider a generic optomechanical system, consisting of a driven optical cavity and a movable mirror attached to a cantilever. Systems of this kind (and analogues) have been realized in many recent experiments. It is well known that those systems can exhibit an instability towards a regime where the cantilever settles into self-sustained oscillations. In this paper, we briefly review the classical theory of the optomechanical instability, and then discuss the features arising in the quantum regime. We solve numerically a full quantum master equation for the coupled system, and use it to ana…

Simple Quantum Mechanical Phenomena and the Feynman Real Time Path Integral

The path integral formalism gives a very illustrative and intuitive understanding of quantum mechanics but due to its difficult sum over phases one usually prefers Schrödinger's approach. We will show that it is possible to calculate simple quantum phenomena by performing Feynman's sum over all paths staying entirely in real time. Once the propagator is obtained it is particularly easy to get the energy spectrum or the evolution of any wavefunction.

Gauge invariance in simple mechanical systems

This article discusses and explains the Hamiltonian formulation for a class of simple gauge invariant mechanical systems consisting of point masses and idealized rods. The study of these models may be helpful to advanced undergraduate or graduate students in theoretical physics to understand, in a familiar context, some concepts relevant to the study of classical and quantum field theories. We use a geometric approach to derive the Hamiltonian formulation for the model considered in the paper: four equal masses connected by six ideal rods. We obtain and discuss the meaning of several important…

Relativistic coupling of internal and center of mass dynamics in classical and simple bound quantum mechanical systems

Einstein's famous equation $E_{\rm rest}=mc^2$ for the rest energy of a system with mass $m$ requires that the internal energy of the system be included in $m$. Pursuing this idea using Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics yields a relativistic coupling between the center of mass motion and the internal dynamics of the system. Here we explore the consequences of this coupling, first classically, where we find that the dynamics of the system is time dilated when moving relative to another inertial frame. We then apply the dynamics to a quantum 2-level atom bound in a 1-dimensional infinite poten…

Observation of PT phase transition in a simple mechanical system

If a Hamiltonian is PT symmetric, there are two possibilities: Either the eigenvalues are entirely real, in which case the Hamiltonian is said to be in an unbroken-PT-symmetric phase, or else the eigenvalues are partly real and partly complex, in which case the Hamiltonian is said to be in a broken-PT-symmetric phase. As one varies the parameters of the Hamiltonian, one can pass through the phase transition that separates the unbroken and broken phases. This transition has recently been observed in a variety of laboratory experiments. This paper explains the phase transition in a simple and in…