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Jörg Main

Publications and source records attributed to Jörg Main.

111 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

hbar expansions in semiclassical theories for systems with smooth potentials and discrete symmetries

We extend a theory of first order hbar corrections to Gutzwiller's trace formula for systems with a smooth potential to systems with discrete symmetries and, as an example, apply the method to the two-dimensional hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field. We exploit the C_{4v}-symmetry of the system in the calculation of the correction terms. The numerical results for the semiclassical values will be compared with values extracted from exact quantum mechanical calculations. The comparison shows an excellent agreement and demonstrates the power of the hbar expansion method.

nlin.CD↗

The Hydrogen Atom in Combined Electric and Magnetic Fields with Arbitrary Mutual Orientations

For the hydrogen atom in combined magnetic and electric fields we investigate the dependence of the quantum spectra, classical dynamics, and statistical distributions of energy levels on the mutual orientation of the two external fields. Resonance energies and oscillator strengths are obtained by exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in a complete basis set, even far above the ionization threshold. At high excitation energies around the Stark saddle point the eigenenergies exhibit strong level repulsions when the angle between the fields is varied. The large avoided crossings occur between states with the same approximately conserved principal quantum number, n, and this intramanifold mixing of states cannot be explained, not even qualitatively, by conventional perturbation theory. However, it is well reproduced by an extended perturbation theory which takes into account all couplings between the angular momentum and Runge-Lenz vector. The large avoided crossings are interpreted as a quantum manifestation of classical intramanifold chaos. This interpretation is supported by both classical Poincaré surfaces of section, which reveal a mixed regular-chaotic intramanifold dynamics, and the statistical analysis of nearest-neighbor-spacing

quant-ph↗

Approach to ergodicity in quantum wave functions

According to theorems of Shnirelman and followers, in the semiclassical limit the quantum wavefunctions of classically ergodic systems tend to the microcanonical density on the energy shell. We here develop a semiclassical theory that relates the rate of approach to the decay of certain classical fluctuations. For uniformly hyperbolic systems we find that the variance of the quantum matrix elements is proportional to the variance of the integral of the associated classical operator over trajectory segments of length $T_H$, and inversely proportional to $T_H^2$, where $T_H=h\barρ$ is the Heisenberg time, $\barρ$ being the mean density of states. Since for these systems the classical variance increases linearly with $T_H$, the variance of the matrix elements decays like $1/T_H$. For non-hyperbolic systems, like Hamiltonians with a mixed phase space and the stadium billiard, our results predict a slower decay due to sticking in marginally unstable regions. Numerical computations supporting these conclusions are presented for the bakers map and the hydrogen atom in a magnetic field.

chao-dyn↗