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Alessandro Pizzo

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Pizzo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The quantum mechanics of experiments

This note starts with a recapitulation of what people call the ``Measurement Problem'' of Quantum Mechanics (QM). The dissipative nature of the quantum-mechanical time-evolution of averages of states over large ensembles of identical isolated systems consisting of matter interacting with the radiation field is discussed and shown to correspond to a stochastic time-evolution of states of individual systems. The importance of dissipation for the successful completion of measurements is highlighted. To conclude, a solution of the ``Measurement Problem'' is sketched in an idealized model of a double-slit experiment.

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A Theory of Quantum Jumps

Using the principles of the ETH - Approach to Quantum Mechanics we study fluorescence and the phenomenon of ``quantum jumps'' in idealized models of atoms coupled to the quantized electromagnetic field. In a limiting regime where the orbital motion of the atoms is neglected and the velocity of light tends to infinity we derive explicit non-linear stochastic differential equations describing the effective time evolution of states of individual atoms. These equations give rise to a measure on state-trajectories with quantum jumps which is a quantum-mechanical analogue of the Wiener measure of Brownian motion. Our results amount to a derivation of the fundamental randomness in the quantum-mechanical description of microscopic systems from basic principles in the context of some simple models.

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Two Results in the Quantum Theory of Measurements

Two theorems with applications to the quantum theory of measurements are stated and proven. The first one clarifies and amends von Neumann's Measurement Postulate used in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The second one clarifies the relationship between ``events'' and ``measurements'' and the meaning of measurements in the $ETH$-Approach to quantum mechanics.

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Boundary effects and the stability of the low energy spectrum of the AKLT model

In this paper we study the low-lying spectrum of the AKLT model perturbed by small, finite-range potentials and with open boundary conditions imposed at the edges of the chain. Our analysis is based on the \emph{local, iterative Lie Schwinger block-diagonalization method} which allows us to control small interaction terms localized near the boundary of the chain that are responsible for the possible splitting of the ground-state energy of the AKLT Hamiltonian into energy levels separated by small gaps. This improves earlier results concerning the persistence of the so called \emph{bulk} gap in these models, besides illustrating the power of our general methods in a non-trivial application.

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Low energy spectrum of the XXZ model coupled to a magnetic field

For a class of Hamiltonians of $XXZ$ spin chains in a uniform external magnetic field that are small quantum perturbations of an Ising Hamiltonian, it is shown that the spectral gap above the ground-state energy remains strictly positive when the perturbation is turned on, uniformly in the length of the chain. This result is proven for perturbations of both the ferromagnetic and the antiferromagnetic Ising Hamiltonian. In the antiferromagnetic case, the external magnetic field is required to be small. For a chain of an even number of sites, the two-fold degenerate ground-state energy of the unperturbed antiferromagnetic Hamiltonian may split into two energy levels separated by a very small gap. These results are proven by using a new, quite subtle refinement of a method developed in earlier work and used to iteratively block-diagonalize Hamiltonians of systems confined to ever larger subsets of a lattice by using strictly local unitary conjugations. The new method developed in this paper provides complete control of boundary effects on the low-energy spectrum of perturbed Ising chains uniformly in their length.

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A Completion of Quantum Mechanics

A proposal of how to complete non-relativistic quantum mechanics to a physically meaningful, mathematically precise and logically coherent theory is reviewed. Our proposal leads to a general, non-linear stochastic law for the time-evolution of states of individual physical systems. An application of the general formalism to the quantum theory of fluorescence of an atom coupled to the radiation field is sketched. Some remarks on relativistic quantum theory conclude our review.

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Block-diagonalization of infinite-volume lattice Hamiltonians with unbounded interactions

In this paper we extend the local iterative Lie-Schwinger block-diagonalization method - introduced in [DFPR3] for quantum lattice systems with bounded interactions in arbitrary dimension- to systems with unbounded interactions, i.e., systems of bosons. We study Hamiltonians that can be written as the sum of a gapped operator consisting of a sum of on-site terms and a perturbation given by relatively bounded (but unbounded) interaction potentials of short range multiplied by a real coupling constant t. For sufficiently small values of |t| independent of the size of the lattice, we prove that the spectral gap above the ground-state energy of such Hamiltonians remains strictly positive. As in [DFPR3], we iteratively construct a sequence of local block-diagonalization steps based on unitary conjugations of the original Hamiltonian and inspired by the Lie-Schwinger procedure. To control the ranges and supports of the effective potentials generated in the course of our block-diagonalization steps, we use methods introduced in [DFPR3] for Hamiltonians with bounded interactions potentials. However, due to the unboundedness of the interaction potentails, weighted operator norms must be introduced, and some of the steps of the inductive proof by which we control the weighted norms of the effective potentials require special care to cope with matrix elements of unbounded operators. We stress that no large-field problems appear in our construction. In this respect our operator methods turn out to be an efficient tool to separate the low-energy spectral region of the Hamiltonian from other spectral regions, where the unbounded nature of the interaction potentials would become manifest.

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The Time-Evolution of States in Quantum Mechanics

It is argued that the Schrödinger equation does not yield a correct description of the quantum-mechanical time evolution of states of isolated (open) systems featuring events. A precise general law for the time evolution of states replacing the Schrödinger equation is formulated within the so-called ETH-Approach to Quantum Mechanics. This law eliminates the infamous "measurement problem." Our general results are illustrated by an analysis of simple models describing a very heavy atom coupled to the quantized radiation field in a limit where the speed of light tends to infinity. The discussion of these models is the main subject of our paper.

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Coulomb scattering in the massless Nelson model IV. Atom-electron scattering

We consider the massless Nelson model with two types of massive particles which we call atoms and electrons. The atoms interact with photons via an infrared regular form-factor and thus they are Wigner-type particles with sharp mass-shells. The electrons have an infrared singular form-factor and thus they are infraparticles accompanied by soft-photon clouds correlated with their velocities. In the weak coupling regime we construct scattering states of one atom and one electron, and demonstrate their asymptotic clustering into individual particles. The proof relies on the Cook's argument, clustering estimates, and the non-stationary phase method. The latter technique requires sharp estimates on derivatives of the ground state wave functions of the fiber Hamiltonians of the model, which were proven in the earlier papers of this series. Although we rely on earlier studies of the atom-atom and electron-photon scattering in the Nelson model, the paper is written in a self-contained manner. A perspective on the open problem of the electron-electron scattering in this model is also given.

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Local iterative block-diagonalization of gapped Hamiltonians: a new tool in singular perturbation theory

In this paper the local iterative Lie-Schwinger block-diagonalization method, introduced in [FP], [DFPR1], and [DFPR2] for quantum chains, is extended to higher-dimensional quantum lattice systems with Hamiltonians that can be written as the sum of an unperturbed gapped operator, consisting of a sum of on-site terms, and a perturbation consisting of bounded interaction potentials of short range mutltiplied by a real coupling constant t. Our goal is to prove that the spectral gap above the ground-state energy of such Hamiltonians persists for sufficiently small values of |t|, independently of the size of the lattice. New ideas and concepts are necessary to extend our method to systems in dimension d > 1: As in our earlier work, a sequence of local block-diagonalization steps based on judiciously chosen unitary conjugations of the original Hamiltonian is introduced. The supports of effective interaction potentials generated in the course of these block-diagonalization steps can be identified with what we call minimal rectangles contained in the lattice, a concept that serves to tackle combinatorial problems that arise in the course of iterating the block-diagonalization steps. For a given minimal rectangle, control of the effective interaction potentials generated in each block-diagonalization step with support in the given rectangle is achieved by exploiting a variety of rather subtle mechanisms which include, for example, the use of weighted sums of paths consisting of overlapping rectangles and of large denominators, expressed in terms of sums of orthogonal projections, that serve to control analogous sums of projections in the numerators resulting from the unitary conjugations of the interaction potential terms involved in the local block-diagonalization step.

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Lie-Schwinger block-diagonalization and gapped quantum chains

We study quantum chains whose Hamiltonians are perturbations by bounded interactions of short range of a Hamiltonian that does not couple the degrees of freedom located at different sites of the chain and has a strictly positive energy gap above its ground-state energy. We prove that, for small values of a coupling constant, the spectral gap of the perturbed Hamiltonian above its ground-state energy is bounded from below by a positive constant uniformly in the length of the chain. In our proof we use a novel method based on local Lie-Schwinger conjugations of the Hamiltonians associated with connected subsets of the chain.

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Coulomb scattering in the massless Nelson model III. Ground state wave functions and non-commutative recurrence relations

Let $H_{P,\sigma}$ be the single-electron fiber Hamiltonians of the massless Nelson model at total momentum $P$ and infrared cut-off $\sigma>0$. We establish detailed regularity properties of the corresponding $n$-particle ground state wave functions $f^n_{P,\sigma}$ as functions of $P$ and $\sigma$. In particular, we show that \[ |\partial_{P^j}f^{n}_{P,\sigma}(k_1,\ldots, k_n)|, \ \ |\partial_{P^j} \partial_{P^{j'}} f^{n}_{P,\sigma}(k_1,\ldots, k_n)| \leq \frac{1}{\sqrt{n!}} \frac{(c\lambda_0)^n}{\sigma^{\delta_{\lambda_0}}} \prod_{i=1}^n\frac{ \chi_{[\sigma,\kappa)}(k_i)}{|k_i|^{3/2}}, \] where $c$ is a numerical constant, $\lambda_0\mapsto \delta_{\lambda_0}$ is a positive function of the maximal admissible coupling constant which satisfies $\lim_{\lambda_0\to 0}\delta_{\lambda_0}=0$ and $\chi_{[\sigma,\kappa)}$ is the (approximate) characteristic function of the energy region between the infrared cut-off $\sigma$ and the ultraviolet cut-off $\kappa$. While the analysis of the first derivative is relatively straightforward, the second derivative requires a new strategy. By solving a non-commutative recurrence relation we derive a novel formula for $f^n_{P,\sigma}$ with improved infrared properties. In this representation $\partial_{P^{j'}}\partial_{P^{j}}f^n_{P,\sigma}$ is amenable to sharp estimates obtained by iterative analytic perturbation theory in part II of this series of papers. The bounds stated above are instrumental for scattering theory of two electrons in the Nelson model, as explained in part I of this series.

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Bose particles in a box II. A convergent expansion of the ground state of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian in the mean field limiting regime

In this paper we consider an interacting Bose gas at zero temperature, in a finite box and in the mean field limiting regime. The N gas particles interact through a pair potential of positive type and with an ultraviolet cut-off. Its (nonzero) Fourier components are sufficiently large with respect to the corresponding kinetic energies of the modes. Using the multi-scale technique in the occupation numbers of particle states introduced in [Pi1], we provide a convergent expansion of the ground state of the particle number preserving Bogoliubov Hamiltonian in terms of the bare operators. In the limit N \to \infty the expansion is up to any desired precision.

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Bose particles in a box I. A convergent expansion of the ground state of a three-modes Bogoliubov Hamiltonian

In this paper we introduce a novel multi-scale technique to study many-body quantum systems where the total number of particles is kept fixed. The method is based on Feshbach map and the scales are represented by occupation numbers of particle states. Here, we consider a three-modes (including the zero mode) Bogoliubov Hamiltonian for a sufficiently small ratio between the kinetic energy and the Fourier component of the (positive type) potential corresponding to the two nonzero modes. For any space dimension d\geq 1 and in the mean field limiting regime (i.e., at fixed box volume |Λ| and for a number of particles, N, sufficiently large) this method provides the construction of the ground state and its expansion in terms of the bare operators that in the limit N \to \infty is up to any desired precision. In space dimension d \geq 3 the method provides similar results for an arbitrarily large (finite) box and a large but fixed particle density ρ, i.e.,ρis independent of the size of the box.

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Bose particles in a box III. A convergent expansion of the ground state of the Hamiltonian in the mean field limiting regime

In this paper we consider an interacting Bose gas at zero temperature, constrained to a finite box and in the mean field limiting regime. The N gas particles interact through a pair potential of positive type and with an ultraviolet cut-off. The (nonzero) Fourier components of the potential are assumed to be sufficiently large with respect to the corresponding kinetic energies of the modes like in the companion papers [Pi1]-[Pi2]. Using the multi-scale technique in the occupation numbers of particle states introduced in [Pi1]-[Pi2], we provide a convergent expansion of the ground state of the Hamiltonian in terms of the bare operators. In the limit N \to \infty the expansion is up to any desired precision.

math-ph

Coulomb scattering in the massless Nelson model II. Regularity of ground states

For the massless Nelson model we provide detailed information about the dependence of the normalized ground states $\check{\psi}_{P,\sigma}$ of the fiber single-electron Hamiltonians $H_{P,\sigma}$ on the total momentum $P$ and the infrared cut-off $\sigma$. This information is obtained with the help of the iterative analytic perturbation theory. In particular, we derive bounds of the form \[ \|\partial_{P_i}\check{\psi}_{P,\sigma}\|,\ \| \partial_{P_i} \partial_{P_j}\check{\psi}_{P,\sigma} \|\leq \frac{c}{\sigma^{\delta_{\lambda_0}}}, \] for some constant $c$ and a function of the maximal admissible coupling constant $\lambda_0\mapsto \delta_{\lambda_0}$ s.t. $\lim_{\lambda_0\to 0}\delta_{\lambda_0}=0$. These results hold both in the infrared-regular and infrared-singular case. They are exploited in part I of this series to construct the two-electron scattering states in the infrared-regular massless Nelson model (in the absence of an infrared cut-off) along the lines of Haag-Ruelle scattering theory. They should also be relevant for the problem of scattering of two infraparticles in the infrared-singular Nelson model, whose solution is the goal of this series of papers. Although a part of a larger investigation, the present work is written in a self-contained fashion.

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Coulomb scattering in the massless Nelson model I. Foundations of two-electron scattering

We construct two-electron scattering states and verify their tensor product structure in the infrared-regular massless Nelson model. The proof follows the lines of Haag-Ruelle scattering theory: Scattering state approximants are defined with the help of two time-dependent renormalized creation operators of the electrons acting on the vacuum. They depend on ground state wave functions of the (single-electron) fiber Hamiltonians with infrared cut-off. Convergence of these approximants as $t\to \infty$ is shown with the help of Cook's method combined with a non-stationary phase argument. Removal of the infrared cut-off in the limit $t\to \infty$ requires sharp estimates on the derivatives of these ground state wave functions w.r.t. electron and photon momenta, with mild dependence on the infrared cut-off. These key estimates, which carry information about the localization of electrons in space, are obtained in a companion paper with the help of iterative analytic perturbation theory. Our results hold in the weak coupling regime.

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Existence and Construction of Resonances for Atoms Coupled to the Quantized Radiation Field

For a nonrelativistic atom, which is minimally coupled to the quantized radiation field, resonances emerging from excited atomic eigenstates are constructed by an iteration scheme inspired by \cite{Pizzo2003} and \cite{BachFrohlichPizzo2006}. This scheme successively removes an infrared cut off in momentum space and yields a convergent algorithm enabling us to calculate the resonance eigenvalues and eigenstates, to arbitrary order in the feinstructure constant $α\sim 1/137$, and is thus an alternative method of proof of a similar result obtained in \cite{Sigal2010}.

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