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Article
Recurrences Associated with a Classical Orbit in the Node of a Quantum Wave Function
Physical Review A
  • John A. Shaw
  • John B. Delos, William & Mary
  • Michael Courtney
  • Daniel Kleppner
Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Physics
Pub Date
11-1-1995
Publisher
American Physical Society
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.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.52.3695
Disciplines
Citation Information
John A. Shaw, John B. Delos, Michael Courtney and Daniel Kleppner. "Recurrences Associated with a Classical Orbit in the Node of a Quantum Wave Function" Physical Review A Vol. 52 Iss. 5 (1995) p. 3695 - 3703
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/john-delos/78/