arXiv subjects

D. Dürr

Publications and source records attributed to D. Dürr.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2016

Effective non-Markovian description of a system interacting with a bath

We study a harmonic system coupled to chain of first neighbor interacting oscillators. After deriving the exact dynamics of the system, we prove that one can effectively describe the exact dynamics by considering a suitable shorter chain. We provide the explicit expression for such an effective dynamics and we provide an upper bound on the error one makes considering it instead of the dynamics of the full chain. We eventually prove how error, timescale and number of modes in the truncated chain are related.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Global solutions to the electrodynamic two-body problem on a straight line

The classical electrodynamic two-body problem has been a long standing open problem in mathematics. For motion constrained to the straight line, the interaction is similar to that of the two-body problem of classical gravitation. The additional complication is the presence of unbounded state-dependent delays in the Coulomb forces due to the finiteness of the speed of light. This circumstance renders the notion of local solutions meaningless, and therefore, straight-forward ODE techniques can not be applied. Here, we study the time-symmetric case, i.e., the Fokker-Schwarzschild-Tetrode (FST) equations, comprising both advanced and retarded delays. We extend the technique developed in \cite{DirkGuenter}, where existence of FST solutions was proven on the half-line, to ensure global existence -- a result that had been obtained by Bauer \cite{Bauer} in 1997. Due to the novel technique, the presented proof is shorter and more transparent but also relies on the idea to employ asymptotic data to characterize solutions.

math.CA↗

arXiv2015

Progress towards an effective non-Markovian description of a system interacting with a bath

We analyze a system coupled to a bath of independent harmonic oscillators. We transform the bath in chain structure by solving an inverse eigenvalue problem. We solve the equations of motion for the collective variables defined by this transformation, and we derive the exact dynamics for an harmonic oscillator in terms of the microscopic motion of the environmental modes. We compare this approach to the well-known Generalized Langevin Equation and we show that our dynamics satisfies this equation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Delay Equations of the Wheeler-Feynman Type

We present an approximate model of Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics for which uniqueness of solutions is proved. It is simple enough to be instructive but close enough to Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics such that we can discuss its natural type of initial data, constants of motion and stable orbits with regard to Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics.

math-ph↗

arXiv2011

On the Existence of Dynamics of Wheeler-Feynman Electromagnetism

We study the equations of Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics which is an action-at-a-distance theory about world-lines of charges that interact through their corresponding advanced and retarded Liénard-Wiechert field terms. The equations are non-linear, neutral, and involve time-like advanced as well as retarded arguments of unbounded delay. Using a reformulation in terms of Maxwell-Lorentz electrodynamics without self-interaction, which we have introduced in a preceding work, we are able to establish the existence of conditional solutions. These are solutions that solve the Wheeler-Feynman equations on any finite time interval with prescribed continuations outside of this interval. As a byproduct we also prove existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Synge equations on the time half-line for a given history of charge trajectories.

math-ph↗

arXiv2011

Maxwell-Lorentz Dynamics of Rigid Charges

We establish global existence and uniqueness of the dynamics of classical electromagnetism with extended, rigid charges and fields which need not to be square integrable. We consider also a modified theory of electromagnetism where no self-fields occur. That theory and our results are crucial for approaching the as yet unsolved problem of the general existence of dynamics of Wheeler Feynman electromagnetism, which we shall address in the follow up paper.

math-ph↗

arXiv2010

Time Evolution of the External Field Problem in QED

We construct the time-evolution for the second quantized Dirac equation subject to a smooth, compactly supported, time dependent electromagnetic potential and identify the degrees of freedom involved. Earlier works on this (e.g. Ruijsenaars) observed the Shale-Stinespring condition and showed that the one-particle time-evolution can be lifted to Fock space if and only if the external field had zero magnetic components. We scrutinize the idea, observed earlier by Fierz and Scharf, that the time-evolution can be implemented between time varying Fock spaces. In order to define these Fock spaces we are led to consider classes of reference vacua and polarizations. We show that this implementation is up to a phase independent of the chosen reference vacuum or polarization and that all induced transition probabilities are well-defined and unique.

math-ph↗

arXiv2006

A microscopic derivation of the quantum mechanical formal scattering cross section

We prove that the empirical distribution of crossings of a "detector'' surface by scattered particles converges in appropriate limits to the scattering cross section computed by stationary scattering theory. Our result, which is based on Bohmian mechanics and the flux-across-surfaces theorem, is the first derivation of the cross section starting from first microscopic principles.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

On the Flux-Across-Surfaces Theorem

The quantum probability flux of a particle integrated over time and a distant surface gives the probability for the particle crossing that surface at some time. We prove the free Flux-Across-Surfaces Theorem, which was conjectured by Combes, Newton and Shtokhamer, and which relates the integrated quantum flux to the usual quantum mechanical formula for the cross section. The integrated quantum flux is equal to the probability of outward crossings of surfaces by Bohmian trajectories in the scattering regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1995

Bohmian Mechanics as the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

In order to arrive at Bohmian mechanics from standard nonrelativistic quantum mechanics one need do almost nothing! One need only complete the usual quantum description in what is really the most obvious way: by simply including the positions of the particles of a quantum system as part of the state description of that system, allowing these positions to evolve in the most natural way. The entire quantum formalism, including the uncertainty principle and quantum randomness, emerges from an analysis of this evolution. This can be expressed succinctly---though in fact not succinctly enough---by declaring that the essential innovation of Bohmian mechanics is the insight that {\it particles move }!

quant-ph↗

arXiv1995

A Survey on Bohmian Mechanics

Bohmian mechanics is the most naively obvious embedding imaginable of Schrödinger's equation into a completely coherent physical theory. It describes a world in which particles move in a highly non-Newtonian sort of way, one which may at first appear to have little to do with the spectrum of predictions of quantum mechanics. It turns out, however, that as a consequence of the defining dynamical equations of Bohmian mechanics, when a system has wave function $ψ$ its configuration is typically random, with probability density $ρ$ given by $|ψ|^2$, the quantum equilibrium distribution. It also turns out that the entire quantum formalism, operators as observables and all the rest, is a consequence of Bohmian mechanics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1995

On the Global Existence of Bohmian Mechanics

We show that the particle motion in Bohmian mechanics, given by the solution of an ordinary differential equation, exists globally: For a large class of potentials the singularities of the velocity field and infinity will not be reached in finite time for typical initial values. A substantial part of the analysis is based on the probabilistic significance of the quantum flux. We elucidate the connection between the conditions necessary for global existence and the self-adjointness of the Schrödinger Hamiltonian.

quant-ph↗