Fractional Schrödinger equation
The fractional Schrödinger equation is a fundamental equation of fractional quantum mechanics. It was discovered by Nick Laskin (1999) as a result of extending the Feynman path integral, from the Brownian-like to Lévy-like quantum mechanical paths. The term fractional Schrödinger equation was coined by Nick Laskin.[1]
Fundamentals
The fractional Schrödinger equation in the form originally obtained by Nick Laskin is:[2]
- r is the 3-dimensional position vector,
- ħ is the reduced Planck constant,
- ψ(r, t) is the wavefunction, which is the quantum mechanical probability amplitude for the particle to have a given position r at any given time t,
- V(r, t) is a potential energy,
- Δ = ∂2/∂r2 is the Laplace operator.
Further,
- Dα is a scale constant with physical dimension [Dα] = [energy]1 − α·[length]α[time]−α, at α = 2, D2 =1/2m, where m is a particle mass,
- the operator (−ħ2Δ)α/2 is the 3-dimensional fractional quantum Riesz derivative defined by (see, Ref.[2]);
Here, the wave functions in the position and momentum spaces; and are related each other by the 3-dimensional Fourier transforms:
The index α in the fractional Schrödinger equation is the Lévy index, 1 < α ≤ 2. Thus, the fractional Schrödinger equation includes a space derivative of fractional order α instead of the second order (α = 2) space derivative in the standard Schrödinger equation. Thus, the fractional Schrödinger equation is a fractional differential equation in accordance with modern terminology.[3] This is the main point of the term fractional Schrödinger equation or a more general term fractional quantum mechanics.[4] At α = 2 fractional Schrödinger equation becomes the well-known Schrödinger equation.
The fractional Schrödinger equation has the following operator form
where the fractional Hamilton operator is given by
The Hamilton operator, corresponds to the classical mechanics Hamiltonian function
where p and r are the momentum and the position vectors respectively.
Time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation
The special case when the Hamiltonian is independent of time
is of great importance for physical applications. It is easy to see that in this case there exist the special solution of the fractional Schrödinger equation
where satisfies
or
This is the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation.
Thus, we see that the wave function oscillates with a definite frequency. In classical physics the frequency corresponds to the energy. Therefore, the quantum mechanical state has a definite energy E. The probability to find a particle at is the absolute square of the wave function Because of time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation this is equal to and does not depend upon the time. That is, the probability of finding the particle at is independent of the time. One can say that the system is in a stationary state. In other words, there is no variation in the probabilities as a function of time.
Probability current density
The continuity equation for probability current and density follows from the fractional Schrödinger equation:
where is the quantum mechanical probability density and the vector can be called by the fractional probability current density vector
where we use the notation (see also matrix calculus): .
Introducing the momentum operator we can write the vector in the form (see, Ref.[2])
This is fractional generalization of the well-known equation for probability current density vector of standard quantum mechanics (see, Ref.[7]).
Velocity operator
The quantum mechanical velocity operator is defined as follows:
Straightforward calculation results in (see, Ref.[2])
Hence,
To get the probability current density equal to 1 (the current when one particle passes through unit area per unit time) the wave function of a free particle has to be normalized as
where is the particle velocity, .
Then we have
that is, the vector is indeed the unit vector.
Physical applications
Fractional Bohr atom
When is the potential energy of hydrogenlike atom,
where e is the electron charge and Z is the atomic number of the hydrogenlike atom, (so Ze is the nuclear charge of the atom), we come to following fractional eigenvalue problem,
This eigenvalue problem has first been solved in.[5]
Using the first Niels Bohr postulate yields
and it gives us the equation for the Bohr radius of the fractional hydrogenlike atom
Here a0 is the fractional Bohr radius (the radius of the lowest, n = 1, Bohr orbit) defined as,
The energy levels of the fractional hydrogenlike atom are given by
where E0 is the binding energy of the electron in the lowest Bohr orbit that is, the energy required to put it in a state with E = 0 corresponding to n = ∞,
The energy (α − 1)E0 divided by ħc, (α − 1)E0/ħc, can be considered as fractional generalization of the Rydberg constant of standard quantum mechanics. For α = 2 and Z = 1 the formula is transformed into
- ,
which is the well-known expression for the Rydberg formula.
According to the second Niels Bohr postulate, the frequency of radiation associated with the transition, say, for example from the orbit m to the orbit n, is,
- .
The above equations are fractional generalization of the Bohr model. In the special Gaussian case, when (α = 2) those equations give us the well-known results of the Bohr model.[6]
The infinite potential well
A particle in a one-dimensional well moves in a potential field , which is zero for and which is infinite elsewhere,
It is evident a priori that the energy spectrum will be discrete. The solution of the fractional Schrödinger equation for the stationary state with well-defined energy E is described by a wave function , which can be written as
- ,
where , is now time independent. In regions (i) and (iii), the fractional Schrödinger equation can be satisfied only if we take . In the middle region (ii), the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation is
This equation defines the wave functions and the energy spectrum within region (ii), while outside of the region (ii), x<-a and x>a, the wave functions are zero. The wave function has to be continuous everywhere, thus we impose the boundary conditions for the solutions of the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation (see, Ref.[5]). Then the solution in region (ii) can be written as
where k is given by
The even (under reflection ) solution satisfies the boundary conditions if
The odd (under reflection ) solution satisfies the boundary conditions if
It is easy to check that the normalized solutions are
and
Solutions and have the property that
where is the Kronecker symbol and
The eigenvalues of the particle in an infinite potential well are (see, Ref.[5])
It is obvious that in the Gaussian case (α = 2) above equations are transformed into the standard quantum mechanical equations for a particle in a box (for example, see Eq.(20.7) in [7])
The state of the lowest energy, the ground state, in the infinite potential well is represented by the at n=1,
and its energy is
Fractional quantum oscillator
Fractional quantum oscillator introduced by Nick Laskin (see, Ref.[2]) is the fractional quantum mechanical model with the Hamiltonian operator defined as
- ,
where q is interaction constant.
The fractional Schrödinger equation for the wave function of the fractional quantum oscillator is,
Aiming to search for solution in form
we come to the time-independent fractional Schrödinger equation,
The Hamiltonian is the fractional generalization of the 3D quantum harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian of standard quantum mechanics.
Energy levels of the 1D fractional quantum oscillator in semiclassical approximation
The energy levels of 1D fractional quantum oscillator with the Hamiltonian function can be found in semiclassical approximation.
We set the total energy equal to E, so that
whence
- .
At the turning points . Hence, the classical motion is possible in the range .
A routine use of the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule yields
where the notation means the integral over one complete period of the classical motion and is the turning point of classical motion.
To evaluate the integral in the right hand we introduce a new variable . Then we have
The integral over dy can be expressed in terms of the Beta-function,
Therefore
The above equation gives the energy levels of stationary states for the 1D fractional quantum oscillator (see, Ref.[2]),
This equation is generalization of the well-known energy levels equation of the standard quantum harmonic oscillator (see, Ref.[7]) and is transformed into it at α = 2 and β = 2. It follows from this equation that at the energy levels are equidistant. When and the equidistant energy levels can be for α = 2 and β = 2 only. It means that the only standard quantum harmonic oscillator has an equidistant energy spectrum.
See also
- Schrödinger equation
- Path integral formulation
- Relation between Schrödinger's equation and the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics
- Fractional calculus
- Quantum harmonic oscillator
References
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2000), Fractional Quantum Mechanics and Lévy Path Integrals. Physics Letters 268A, 298-304.
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2002), Fractional Schrödinger equation, Physical Review E66, 056108 7 pages. (also available online: http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0206098)
- ↑ S. G. Samko, A. A. Kilbas, and O. I. Marichev, Fractional Integrals and Derivatives, Theory and Applications ~Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam, 1993
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2000), Fractional Quantum Mechanics, Physical Review E62, 3135-3145. (also available online: http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1769)
- ↑ N. Laskin, (2000), Fractals and quantum mechanics. Chaos 10, 780-790
- ↑ N. Bohr, (1913), Phil. Mag. 26, 1, 476, 857
- ↑ L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz, Quantum mechanics (Non-relativistic Theory), Vol.3, Third Edition, Course of Theoretical Physics, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2003
- Richard Herrmann (2011). "9". Fractional Calculus, An Introduction for Physicists. World Scientific. ISBN 981 4340 24 3.
- J. Klafter, S.C. Lim, R. Metzler (2012). Fractional Dynamics: Recent Advances. World Scientific. p. 426. ISBN 981-434-059-6.
- J.S. Moreno (2008). Progress in Statistical Mechanics Research. Nova Publishers. p. 10. ISBN 160-456-028-2.
- L. Debnath (2005). Nonlinear partial differential equations for scientists and engineers (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 126–127. ISBN 0-817-643-230.
- T. Myint U., L. Debnath (2007). Linear partial differential equations for scientists and engineers (4th ed.). Springer. p. 520. ISBN 0-817-645-608.
- Issues in Applied Mathematics. Scholarly Editions. 2012. ISBN 146-496-507-2.
- V.E. Tarasov (2010). "19". Fractional dynamics. Nonlinear physical science 0. Springer. ISBN 3-642-140-033.
- J. Sabatier, O.P.Agrawal, J.A.T.Machado (2007). Advances in Fractional Calculus: Theoretical Developments and Applications in Physics and Engineering. Springer. ISBN 1-402-060-424.
- D. Baleanu, J.A.T. Machado, A.C.J. Luo (2012). "17". Fractional Dynamics and Control. Springer. ISBN 1-461-404-576.
Further reading
- Xiaoyi Guo and Mingyu Xu, Some physical applications of fractional Schrödinger equation. J. Math. Phys. 47, 082104 (2006).
- S. Wang, M. Xu, Generalized fractional Schrödinger equation with space-time fractional derivatives J. Math. Phys. 48 (2007) 043502
- Bayın, Selçuk Ş., On the consistency of the solutions of the space fractional Schrödinger equation. Journal of Mathematical Physics, Volume 53, Issue 4, pp. 042105-042105-9 (2012)
- Jianping Dong, , Mingyu Xu, Some solutions to the space fractional Schrödinger equation using momentum representation method , J. Math. Phys. 48, 072105 (2007).
- Jianping Dong, , Mingyu Xu, Space–time fractional Schrödinger equation with time-independent potentials, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications Volume 344, Issue 2, Pages 1005–1017 (2008).
- A. Iomin, Fractional-time quantum dynamics. Phys. Rev. E 80, (2009) 022103.
- N. Laskin, Fractals and quantum mechanics. Chaos 10(2000) 780-790
- M. Naber, Time fractional Schrodinger equation. J. Math. Phys. 45 (2004) 3339-3352. arXiv:math-ph/0410028
- V.E. Tarasov, Fractional Heisenberg equation. Phys. Lett. A 372 (2008) 2984-2988.
- V.E. Tarasov, Weyl quantization of fractional derivatives. J. Math. Phys. 49 (2008) 102112.
- Edmundo Capelas de Oliveira, Felix Silva Costa, and Jayme Vaz, Jr., The fractional Schrödinger equation for delta potentials, J. Math. Phys. 51, 123517 (2010).
- E Capelas de Oliveira and Jayme Vaz Jr, "Tunneling in Fractional Quantum Mechanics" Journal of Physics A Volume 44 (2011) 185303.