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Jacob Levitan

Publications and source records attributed to Jacob Levitan.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Raychaudhuri Equation,Geometrical Flows and Geometrical Entropy

Raychaudhuri equation is derived by assuming geometric flow in spacetime M of n+1 dimensions. The equation turns into a harmonic oscillator form under suitable transformations.Thereby a relation between geometrical entropy and mean geodesic deviation is established. This has a connection to chaos theory where the trajectories diverge exponentially. We discuss its application to cosmology and black holes. Thus we present a connection between chaos theory and general relativity.

gr-qc

Entropy measures as geometrical tools in the study of cosmology

Classical chaos is often characterized as exponential divergence of nearby trajectories. In many interesting cases these trajectories can be identified with geodesic curves. We define here the entropy by $S = \ln χ(x)$ with $χ(x)$ being the distance between two nearby geodesics. We derive an equation for the entropy which by transformation to a Ricatti-type equation becomes similar to the Jacobi equation. We further show that the geodesic equation for a null geodesic in a double warped space time leads to the same entropy equation. By applying a Robertson-Walker metric for a flat three-dimensional Euclidian space expanding as a function of time, we again reach the entropy equation stressing the connection between the chosen entropy measure and time. We finally turn to the Raychaudhuri equation for expansion, which also is a Ricatti equation similar to the transformed entropy equation. Those Ricatti-type equations have solutions of the same form as the Jacobi equation. The Raychaudhuri equation can be transformed to a harmonic oscillator equation, and it has been shown that the geodesic deviation equation of Jacobi is essentially equivalent to that of a harmonic oscillator. The Raychaudhuri equations are strong geometrical tools in the study of General Relativity and Cosmology. We suggest a refined entropy measure applicable in Cosmology and defined by the average deviation of the geodesics in a congruence.

gr-qc

Tunneling as a Source for Quantum Chaos

We use an one dimensional model of a square barrier embedded in an infinite potential well to demonstrate that tunneling leads to a complex behavior of the wave function and that the degree of complexity may be quantified by use of the spatial entropy function defined by S = -\int |Ψ(x,t)|^2 ln |Ψ(x,t)|^2 dx. There is no classical counterpart to tunneling, but a decrease in the tunneling in a short time interval may be interpreted as an approach of a quantum system to a classical system. We show that changing the square barrier by increasing the height/width do not only decrease the tunneling but also slows down the rapid rise of the entropy function, indicating that the entropy growth is an essentially quantum effect.

quant-ph

Quantum Field Theory of Classically Unstable Hamiltonian Dynamics

We study a class of dynamical systems for which the motions can be described in terms of geodesics on a manifold (ordinary potential models can be cast into this form by means of a conformal map). It is rigorously proven that the geodesic deviation equation of Jacobi, constructed with a second covariant derivative, is unitarily equivalent to that of a parametric harmonic oscillator, and we study the second quatization of this oscillator. The excitations of the Fock space modes correspond to the emission and absorption of quanta into the dynamical medium, thus associating unstable behavior of the dynamical system with calculable fluctuations in an ensamble with possible thermodynamic consequences.

math-ph

On the geometry of Hamiltonian chaos

We show that Gutzwiller's characterization of chaotic Hamiltonian systems in terms of the curvature associated with a Riemannian metric tensor in the structure of the Hamiltonian can be extended to a wide class of potential models of standard form through definition of a conformal metric. The geodesic equations reproduce the Hamilton equations of the original potential model when a transition is made to the dual manifold, and the geodesics in the dual space coincide with the orbits of the Hamiltonian potential model. We therefore find a direct geometrical description of the time development of a Hamiltonian potential model. The second covariant derivative of the geodesic deviation in this dual manifold generates a dynamical curvature, resulting in (energy dependent) criteria for unstable behavior different from the usual Lyapunov criteria. We discuss some examples of unstable Hamiltonian systems in two dimensions giving, in particular, detailed results for a potential obtained from a fifth order expansion of a Toda lattice Hamiltonian.

physics.class-ph

Chaotic enhancement of decay. The effect of classical phase space structure

We investigate the decay process from a time dependent potential well in the semiclassical regime. The classical dynamics is chaotic and the decay rate shows an irregular behavior as a function of the system parameters. By studying the weak-chaos regime we are able to connect the decay irregularities to the presence of nonlinear resonances in the classical phase space. A quantitative analytical prediction which accounts for the numerical results is obtained.

chao-dyn