Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Physics
Journal Title
Physical Review A
Pub Date
11-1995
Publisher
American Physical Society
Volume
52
Issue
5
First Page
3695
Abstract
Absorption spectra of atoms in magnetic fields reveal recurrences: manifestations of classical orbits (or quantum wave packets) that go out from the atom and later return. A formula from closed-orbit theory asserts that if the orbit lies on a node of the outgoing wave function, then the strength of the recurrence is zero. New quantum calculations, however, show that the recurrence strength is nonzero, though small. We derive a semiclassical formula for the recurrence strength associated with a classical orbit at a node of the quantum wave function. This formula is compared to the quantum mechanical calculation. Compared to other orbits, the recurrence is about 100 times weaker, and obeys a different classical scaling law.
Recommended Citation
Shaw, John A.; Delos, John B.; Courtney, Michael; and Kleppner, Daniel, Recurrences Associated with a Classical Orbit in the Node of a Quantum Wave Function (1995). Physical Review A, 52(5), 3695-3703.
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.52.3695
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.52.3695
