Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics)

Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...

, perturbation theory is a set of approximation schemes directly related to mathematical perturbation

Perturbation theory

Perturbation theory comprises mathematical methods that are used to find an approximate solution to a problem which cannot be solved exactly, by starting from the exact solution of a related problem...

for describing a complicated quantum system in terms of a simpler one. The idea is to start with a simple system for which a mathematical solution is known, and add an additional "perturbing" Hamiltonian

Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics)

In quantum mechanics, the Hamiltonian H, also Ȟ or Ĥ, is the operator corresponding to the total energy of the system. Its spectrum is the set of possible outcomes when one measures the total energy of a system...

representing a weak disturbance to the system. If the disturbance is not too large, the various physical quantities associated with the perturbed system (e.g. its energy

Energy

In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

levels and eigenstates) can, from considerations of continuity, be expressed as 'corrections' to those of the simple system. These corrections, being 'small' compared to the size of the quantities themselves, can be calculated using approximate methods such as asymptotic series. The complicated system can therefore be studied based on knowledge of the simpler one.

Applications of perturbation theory

Perturbation theory is an important tool for describing real quantum systems, as it turns out to be very difficult to find exact solutions to the Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

The Schrödinger equation was formulated in 1926 by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Used in physics , it is an equation that describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes in time....

for Hamiltonians

Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics)

of even moderate complexity. The Hamiltonians to which we know exact solutions, such as the hydrogen atom

Hydrogen atom

A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. The electrically neutral atom contains a single positively-charged proton and a single negatively-charged electron bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force...

, the quantum harmonic oscillator

Quantum harmonic oscillator

The quantum harmonic oscillator is the quantum-mechanical analog of the classical harmonic oscillator. Because an arbitrary potential can be approximated as a harmonic potential at the vicinity of a stable equilibrium point, it is one of the most important model systems in quantum mechanics...

and the particle in a box

Particle in a box

In quantum mechanics, the particle in a box model describes a particle free to move in a small space surrounded by impenetrable barriers. The model is mainly used as a hypothetical example to illustrate the differences between classical and quantum systems...

, are too idealized to adequately describe most systems. Using perturbation theory, we can use the known solutions of these simple Hamiltonians to generate solutions for a range of more complicated systems. For example, by adding a perturbative electric potential

Electric potential

In classical electromagnetism, the electric potential at a point within a defined space is equal to the electric potential energy at that location divided by the charge there...

to the quantum mechanical model of the hydrogen atom, we can calculate the tiny shifts in the spectral line

Spectral line

A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from a deficiency or excess of photons in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies.- Types of line spectra :...

s of hydrogen caused by the presence of an electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

(the Stark effect

Stark effect

The Stark effect is the shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules due to presence of an external static electric field. The amount of splitting and or shifting is called the Stark splitting or Stark shift. In general one distinguishes first- and second-order Stark effects...

). This is only approximate because the sum of a Coulomb potential with a linear potential is unstable although the tunneling time (decay rate) is very long. This shows up as a broadening of the energy spectrum lines, something which perturbation theory fails to reproduce entirely.

The expressions produced by perturbation theory are not exact, but they can
lead to accurate results as long as the expansion parameter, say

, is very small. Typically, the results are expressed in terms of finite power series in

that seem to converge to the exact values when summed to higher order. After a certain order

, however, the results become increasingly worse since the series are usually divergent

Divergent series

In mathematics, a divergent series is an infinite series that is not convergent, meaning that the infinite sequence of the partial sums of the series does not have a limit....

(being asymptotic series). There exist ways to convert them into convergent series, which can be evaluated for large-expansion parameters, most efficiently by Variational method

Variational method (quantum mechanics)

In quantum mechanics, the variational method is one way of finding approximations to the lowest energy eigenstate or ground state, and some excited states...

.

In the theory of quantum electrodynamics

Quantum electrodynamics

Quantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...

(QED), in which the electron

Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...

-photon

Photon

In physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...

interaction is treated perturbatively, the calculation of the electron's magnetic moment

Magnetic moment

The magnetic moment of a magnet is a quantity that determines the force that the magnet can exert on electric currents and the torque that a magnetic field will exert on it...

has been found to agree with experiment to eleven decimal places. In QED and other quantum field theories

Quantum field theory

Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...

, special calculation techniques known as Feynman diagram

Feynman diagram

Feynman diagrams are a pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, first developed by the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Richard Feynman, and first introduced in 1948...

s are used to systematically sum the power series terms.

Under some circumstances, perturbation theory is an invalid approach to take. This happens when the system we wish to describe cannot be described by a small perturbation imposed on some simple system. In quantum chromodynamics

Quantum chromodynamics

In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics is a theory of the strong interaction , a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons making up hadrons . It is the study of the SU Yang–Mills theory of color-charged fermions...

, for instance, the interaction of quark

Quark

A quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly...

s with the gluon

Gluon

Gluons are elementary particles which act as the exchange particles for the color force between quarks, analogous to the exchange of photons in the electromagnetic force between two charged particles....

field cannot be treated perturbatively at low energies because the coupling constant

Coupling constant

In physics, a coupling constant, usually denoted g, is a number that determines the strength of an interaction. Usually the Lagrangian or the Hamiltonian of a system can be separated into a kinetic part and an interaction part...

(the expansion parameter) becomes too large. Perturbation theory also fails to describe states that are not generated adiabatically from the "free model", including bound state

Bound state

In physics, a bound state describes a system where a particle is subject to a potential such that the particle has a tendency to remain localised in one or more regions of space...

s and various collective phenomena such as soliton

Soliton

In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a self-reinforcing solitary wave that maintains its shape while it travels at constant speed. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium...

s. Imagine, for example, that we have a system of free (i.e. non-interacting) particles, to which an attractive interaction is introduced. Depending on the form of the interaction, this may create an entirely new set of eigenstates corresponding to groups of particles bound to one another. An example of this phenomenon may be found in conventional superconductivity

Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...

, in which the phonon

Phonon

In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, such as solids and some liquids...

-mediated attraction between conduction electrons leads to the formation of correlated electron pairs known as Cooper pair

Cooper pair

In condensed matter physics, a Cooper pair or BCS pair is two electrons that are bound together at low temperatures in a certain manner first described in 1956 by American physicist Leon Cooper...

s. When faced with such systems, one usually turns to other approximation schemes, such as the variational method

Variational method (quantum mechanics)

In quantum mechanics, the variational method is one way of finding approximations to the lowest energy eigenstate or ground state, and some excited states...

and the WKB approximation

WKB approximation

In mathematical physics, the WKB approximation or WKB method is a method for finding approximate solutions to linear partial differential equations with spatially varying coefficients...

. This is because there is no analogue of a bound particle in the unperturbed model and the energy of a soliton typically goes as the inverse of the expansion parameter. However, if we "integrate" over the solitonic phenomena, the nonperturbative corrections in this case will be tiny; of the order of

in the perturbation parameter g. Perturbation theory can only detect solutions "close" to the unperturbed solution, even if there are other solutions (which typically blow up as the expansion parameter goes to zero).

The problem of non-perturbative systems has been somewhat alleviated by the advent of modern computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s. It has become practical to obtain numerical non-perturbative solutions for certain problems, using methods such as density functional theory

Density functional theory

Density functional theory is a quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics and chemistry to investigate the electronic structure of many-body systems, in particular atoms, molecules, and the condensed phases. With this theory, the properties of a many-electron system can be determined by...

. These advances have been of particular benefit to the field of quantum chemistry

Quantum chemistry

Quantum chemistry is a branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems...

. Computers have also been used to carry out perturbation theory calculations to extraordinarily high levels of precision, which has proven important in particle physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

for generating theoretical results that can be compared with experiment.

Time-independent perturbation theory

Time-independent perturbation theory is one of two categories of perturbation theory, the other being time-dependent perturbation (see next section). In time-independent perturbation theory the perturbation Hamiltonian is static (i.e., possesses no time dependence). Time-independent perturbation theory was presented by Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...

in a 1926 paper, shortly after he produced his theories in wave mechanics. In this paper Schrödinger referred to earlier work of Lord Rayleigh, who investigated harmonic vibrations of a string perturbed by small inhomogeneities. This is why this perturbation theory is often referred to as Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory.

First order corrections

We begin with an unperturbed Hamiltonian H₀, which is also assumed to have no time dependence. It has known energy levels and eigenstates, arising from the time-independent Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

For simplicity, we have assumed that the energies are discrete. The

superscripts denote that these quantities are associated with the unperturbed system. Note the use of Bra-ket notation

Bra-ket notation

Bra-ket notation is a standard notation for describing quantum states in the theory of quantum mechanics composed of angle brackets and vertical bars. It can also be used to denote abstract vectors and linear functionals in mathematics...

.

We now introduce a perturbation to the Hamiltonian. Let V be a Hamiltonian representing a weak physical disturbance, such as a potential energy produced by an external field. (Thus, V is formally a Hermitian operator.) Let

be a dimensionless parameter that can take on values ranging continuously from 0 (no perturbation) to 1 (the full perturbation). The perturbed Hamiltonian is

The energy levels and eigenstates of the perturbed Hamiltonian are again given by the Schrödinger equation:

Our goal is to express and |n> in terms of the energy levels and eigenstates of the old Hamiltonian. If the perturbation is sufficiently weak, we can write them as power series in λ:

where

and

When λ = 0, these reduce to the unperturbed values, which are the first term in each series. Since the perturbation is weak, the energy levels and eigenstates should not deviate too much from their unperturbed values, and the terms should rapidly become smaller as we go to higher order.

Plugging the power series into the Schrödinger equation, we obtain

Expanding this equation and comparing coefficients of each power of λ results in an infinite series of simultaneous equations. The zeroth-order equation is simply the Schrödinger equation for the unperturbed system. The first-order equation is

Operating through by <n⁽⁰⁾|. The first term on the left-hand side cancels with the first term on the right-hand side. (Recall, the unperturbed Hamiltonian is hermitian

Hermitian

A number of mathematical entities are named Hermitian, after the mathematician Charles Hermite:*Hermitian adjoint*Hermitian connection, the unique connection on a Hermitian manifold that satisfies specific conditions...

). This leads to the first-order energy shift:

This is simply the expectation value

Expectation value (quantum mechanics)

In quantum mechanics, the expectation value is the predicted mean value of the result of an experiment. Despite the name, it is not the most probable value of a measurement...

of the perturbation Hamiltonian while the system is in the unperturbed state. This result can be interpreted in the following way: suppose the perturbation is applied, but we keep the system in the quantum state |n⁽⁰⁾>, which is a valid quantum state though no longer an energy eigenstate. The perturbation causes the average energy of this state to increase by <n⁽⁰⁾|V|n⁽⁰⁾>. However, the true energy shift is slightly different, because the perturbed eigenstate is not exactly the same as |n⁽⁰⁾>. These further shifts are given by the second and higher order corrections to the energy.

Before we compute the corrections to the energy eigenstate, we need to address the issue of normalization. We may suppose <n⁽⁰⁾|n⁽⁰⁾>=1, but perturbation theory assumes we also have <n|n>=1. It follows that at first order in λ, we must have <n⁽⁰⁾|n⁽¹⁾>+<n⁽¹⁾|n⁽⁰⁾>=0. Since the overall phase is not determined in quantum mechanics, without loss of generality, we may assume <n⁽⁰⁾|n> is purely real. Therefore, <n⁽⁰⁾|n⁽¹⁾>=-<n⁽¹⁾|n⁽⁰⁾>, and we deduce

To obtain the first-order correction to the energy eigenstate, we insert our expression for the first-order energy correction back into the result shown above of equating the first-order coefficients of λ. We then make use of the resolution of the identity,

where

is in the orthogonal complement of

. The result is

For the moment, suppose that the zeroth-order energy level is not degenerate

Degenerate energy level

In physics, two or more different quantum states are said to be degenerate if they are all at the same energy level. Statistically this means that they are all equally probable of being filled, and in Quantum Mechanics it is represented mathematically by the Hamiltonian for the system having more...

, i.e. there is no eigenstate of

in the orthogonal complement of

with the energy

. We multiply through by <k⁽⁰⁾|, which gives

and hence the component of the first-order correction along |k⁽⁰⁾> since by assumption

. In total we get

The first-order change in the n-th energy eigenket has a contribution from each of the energy eigenstates k ≠ n. Each term is proportional to the matrix element <k⁽⁰⁾|V|n⁽⁰⁾>, which is a measure of how much the perturbation mixes eigenstate n with eigenstate k; it is also inversely proportional to the energy difference between eigenstates k and n, which means that the perturbation deforms the eigenstate to a greater extent if there are more eigenstates at nearby energies. We see also that the expression is singular if any of these states have the same energy as state n, which is why we assumed that there is no degeneracy.

Second-order and higher corrections

We can find the higher-order deviations by a similar procedure, though the calculations become quite tedious with our current formulation. Our normalization prescription gives that 2<n⁽⁰⁾|n⁽²⁾>+<n⁽¹⁾|n⁽¹⁾>=0. Up to second order, the expressions for the energies and (normalized) eigenstates are:

Extending the process further, the third-order energy correction can be shown to be

Effects of degeneracy

Suppose that two or more energy eigenstates are degenerate

Degenerate energy level

. The first-order energy shift is not well defined, since there is no unique way to choose a basis of eigenstates for the unperturbed system. The calculation of the change in the eigenstate is problematic as well, because the operator

does not have a well-defined inverse.

Let D denote the subspace spanned by these degenerate eigenstates. No matter how small the perturbation is, in the degenerate subspace D the energy differences between the eigenstates

are zero, so complete mixing of at least some of these states is assured. Thus the perturbation can not be considered small in the D subspace and in that subspace the new Hamiltonian must be diagonalized first. These correct perturbed eigenstates in D are now the basis for the perturbation expansion:

where only eigenstates outside of the D subspace are considered to be small. For the first-order perturbation we need to solve the perturbed Hamiltonian restricted to the degenerate subspace D

simultaneously for all the degenerate eigenstates, where

are first-order corrections to the degenerate energy levels. This is equivalent to diagonalizing the matrix

This procedure is approximate, since we neglected states outside the D subspace. The splitting of degenerate energies

is generally observed. Although the splitting may be small compared to the range of energies found in the system, it is crucial in understanding certain details, such as spectral lines in Electron Spin Resonance experiments.

Higher-order corrections due to other eigenstates can be found in the same way as for the non-degenerate case

The operator on the left hand side is not singular when applied to eigenstates outside D, so we can write

but the effect on the degenerate states is minuscule, proportional to the square of the first-order correction

.

Near-degenerate states should also be treated in the above manner, since the original Hamiltonian won't be larger than the perturbation in the near-degenerate subspace. An application is found in the nearly-free electron model

Nearly-free electron model

In solid-state physics, the nearly-free electron model is a quantum mechanical model of physical properties of electrons that can move almost freely through the crystal lattice of a solid. The model is closely related to the more conceptual Empty Lattice Approximation...

, where near-degeneracy treated properly gives rise to an energy gap even for small perturbations. Other eigenstates will only shift the absolute energy of all near-degenerate states simultaneously.

Generalization to Multi-parameter Case

The generalization of the time-independent perturbation theory to the multi-parameter case can be formulated more systematically using the language of differential geometry, which basically defines the derivatives of the quantum states and calculate the perturbative corrections by taking derivatives iteratively at the unperturbed point.

Hamiltonian and Force Operator

From the differential geometric point of view, a parameterized Hamiltonian is considered as a function defined on the parameter manifold

Manifold

In mathematics , a manifold is a topological space that on a small enough scale resembles the Euclidean space of a specific dimension, called the dimension of the manifold....

that maps each particular set of parameters

to an Hermitian operator

that acts on the Hilbert space. The parameters here can be external field, interaction strength, or driving parameters in the quantum phase transition

Quantum phase transition

In physics, a quantum phase transition is a phase transition between different quantum phases . Contrary to classical phase transitions, quantum phase transitions can only be accessed by varying a physical parameter - such as magnetic field or pressure - at absolute zero temperature...

. Let

and

be the n^th eigenenergy and eigenstate of

respectively. In the language of deferential geometry, the states

form a vector bundle

Vector bundle

In mathematics, a vector bundle is a topological construction that makes precise the idea of a family of vector spaces parameterized by another space X : to every point x of the space X we associate a vector space V in such a way that these vector spaces fit together...

over the parameter manifold, on which derivatives of these states can be defined. The perturbation theory is to answer the following question: given

and

at a unperturbed reference point

, how to estimate the

and

close to that reference point.

With out loss of generality, the coordinate system can be shifted, such that the reference point

is set to be the origin. The following linearly parameterized Hamiltonian is frequently used

.
If the parameters

are considered as generalized coordinates, then

should be identified as the generalized force operators related to those coordinates. Different indices μ's label the different forces along different directions in the parameter manifold. For example, if

denotes the external magnetic field in the μ-direction, then

should be the magnetization in the same direction.

Perturbation Theory as Power Series Expansion

The validity of the perturbation theory lies on the adiabatic assumption, which assumes the eigenenergies and eigenstates of the Hamiltonian are smooth functions of parameters such that their values in the vicinity region can be calculated in power series (like Taylor expansion

Taylor series

In mathematics, a Taylor series is a representation of a function as an infinite sum of terms that are calculated from the values of the function's derivatives at a single point....

) of the parameters:

Here

denotes the derivative with respect to

. When applying to the state

, it should be understood as the Lie derivative

Lie derivative

In mathematics, the Lie derivative , named after Sophus Lie by Władysław Ślebodziński, evaluates the change of a vector field or more generally a tensor field, along the flow of another vector field...

if the vector bundle is equipped with non-vanishing connection

Connection (mathematics)

In geometry, the notion of a connection makes precise the idea of transporting data along a curve or family of curves in a parallel and consistent manner. There are a variety of kinds of connections in modern geometry, depending on what sort of data one wants to transport...

. All the terms on the right-hand-side of the series are evaluated at

, e.g.

and

. This convention will be adopted though out the this subsection, that all functions without the parameter dependence explicitly stated are assumed to be evaluated at the origin. The power series may converge slowly or even not converging when the energy levels are close to each other. The adiabatic assumption breaks down when there is energy level degeneracy, and hence the perturbation theory is not applicable in that case.

Hellmann-Feynman Theorems

The above power series expansion can be readily evaluated if there is a systematic approach to calculate the derivates to any order. Using the chain rule

Chain rule

In calculus, the chain rule is a formula for computing the derivative of the composition of two or more functions. That is, if f is a function and g is a function, then the chain rule expresses the derivative of the composite function in terms of the derivatives of f and g.In integration, the...

, the derivatives can be broken down to the single derivative on either the energy or the state. The Hellmann-Feynman theorems

Hellmann-Feynman theorem

In quantum mechanics, the Hellmann–Feynman theorem relates the derivative of the total energy with respect to a parameter, to the expectation value of the derivative of the Hamiltonian with respect to that same parameter...

are used to calculated these single derivatives. The first Hellmann-Feynman theorem gives the derivative of the energy,

.
The second Hellmann-Feynman theorem gives the derivative of the state (resolved by the complete basis with m ≠ n),

.
For the linearly parameterized Hamiltonian,

simply stands for the generalized force operator

.

The theorems can be simply derived by applying the differential operator

to both sides of the Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

, which reads

.
Then overlap with the state

from left and make use of the Schrödinger equation again

.
Given that the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian always from a set of orthonormal basis

, both the cases of m = n and m ≠ n can be discussed separately. The first case will lead to the first theorem and the second case to the second theorem, which can be shown immediately by rearranging the terms. With the differential rules given by the Hellmann-Feynman theorems, the perturbative correction to the energies and states can be calculated systematically.

Correction of Energy and State

To the second order, the energy correction reads

.
The first order derivative

is given by the first Hellmann-Feynman theorem directly. To obtain the second order derivative

, simply applying the differential operator

to the result of the first order derivative

, which reads

.
Note that for linearly parameterized Hamiltonian, there is no second derivative

on the operator level. Resolve the derivative of state by inserting the complete set of basis,

,
then all parts can be calculated using the Hellmann-Feynman theorems. In terms of Lie derivatives,

according to the definition of the connection for the vector bundle. Therefore the case m = n can be excluded from the summation, which avoids the singularity of the energy denominator. The same procedure can be carried on for higher order derivatives, from which higher order corrections are obtained.

The same computational scheme is applicable for the correction of states. The result to the second order is as follows

Both energy derivatives and state derivatives will be involved in deduction. Whenever a state derivative is encountered, resolve it by inserting the complete set of basis, then the Hellmann-Feynman theorem is applicable. Because differentiation can be calculated systematically, the series expansion approach to the perturbative corrections can be coded on computers with symbolic processing softwares like Mathematica

Mathematica

Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...

Effective Hamiltonian

Let H(0) be the Hamiltonian completely restricted either in the low-energy subspace

or in the high-energy subspace

, such that there is no matrix element in H(0) connecting the low- and the high-energy subspaces, i.e.

. Let

be the coupling terms connecting the subspaces. Then when the high energy degrees of freedoms are integrated out, the effective Hamiltonian in the low energy subspace reads

.
Here

are restricted in the low energy subspace. The above result can be derived by power series expansion of

.
Bold text

Method of variation of constants

Time-dependent perturbation theory, developed by Paul Dirac

Paul Dirac

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...

, studies the effect of a time-dependent perturbation V(t) applied to a time-independent Hamiltonian

. Since the perturbed Hamiltonian is time-dependent, so are its energy levels and eigenstates. Therefore, the goals of time-dependent perturbation theory are slightly different from time-independent perturbation theory. We are interested in the following quantities:

The time-dependent expectation value of some observable A, for a given initial state.
The time-dependent amplitudes of those quantum states that are energy eigenkets (eigenvectors) in the unperturbed system.

The first quantity is important because it gives rise to the classical

Classical mechanics

In physics, classical mechanics is one of the two major sub-fields of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces...

result of an A measurement performed on a macroscopic number of copies of the perturbed system. For example, we could take A to be the displacement in the x-direction of the electron in a hydrogen atom, in which case the expected value, when multiplied by an appropriate coefficient, gives the time-dependent dielectric polarization of a hydrogen gas. With an appropriate choice of perturbation (i.e. an oscillating electric potential), this allows us to calculate the AC permittivity

Permittivity

In electromagnetism, absolute permittivity is the measure of the resistance that is encountered when forming an electric field in a medium. In other words, permittivity is a measure of how an electric field affects, and is affected by, a dielectric medium. The permittivity of a medium describes how...

of the gas.

The second quantity looks at the time-dependent probability of occupation for each eigenstate. This is particularly useful in laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

physics, where one is interested in the populations of different atomic states in a gas when a time-dependent electric field is applied. These probabilities are also useful for calculating the "quantum broadening" of spectral line

Spectral line

s (see line broadening).

We will briefly examine the ideas behind Dirac's formulation of time-dependent perturbation theory. Choose an energy basis

for the unperturbed system. (We will drop the (0) superscripts for the eigenstates, because it is not meaningful to speak of energy levels and eigenstates for the perturbed system.)

If the unperturbed system is in eigenstate

at time

, its state at subsequent times varies only by a phase

Phase (waves)

Phase in waves is the fraction of a wave cycle which has elapsed relative to an arbitrary point.-Formula:The phase of an oscillation or wave refers to a sinusoidal function such as the following:...

(we are following the Schrödinger picture

Schrödinger picture

In physics, the Schrödinger picture is a formulation of quantum mechanics in which the state vectors evolve in time, but the operators are constant. This differs from the Heisenberg picture which keeps the states constant while the observables evolve in time...

, where state vectors evolve in time and operators are constant):

We now introduce a time-dependent perturbing Hamiltonian

. The Hamiltonian of the perturbed system is

Let

denote the quantum state of the perturbed system at time t. It obeys the time-dependent Schrödinger equation,

The quantum state at each instant can be expressed as a linear combination of the eigenbasis

. We can write the linear combination as

where the

s are undetermined complex

Complex number

A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...

functions of t which we will refer to as amplitudes (strictly speaking, they are the amplitudes in the Dirac picture). We have explicitly extracted the exponential phase factors exp(-iE_nt/h) on the right hand side. This is only a matter of convention, and may be done without loss of generality. The reason we go to this trouble is that when the system starts in the state |j> and no perturbation is present, the amplitudes have the convenient property that, for all t, c_j(t) = 1 and

.

The absolute square of the amplitude c_n(t) is the probability that the system is in state n at time t, since

Plugging into the Schrödinger equation and using the fact that ∂/∂t acts by a chain rule

Chain rule

, we obtain

By resolving the identity in front of V, this can be reduced to a set of partial differential equation

Partial differential equation

In mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables...

s for the amplitudes:

The matrix elements of V play a similar role as in time-independent perturbation theory, being proportional to the rate at which amplitudes are shifted between states. Note, however, that the direction of the shift is modified by the exponential phase factor. Over times much longer than the energy difference E_k-E_n, the phase winds many times. If the time-dependence of V is sufficiently slow, this may cause the state amplitudes to oscillate. Such oscillations are useful for managing radiative transitions in a laser

Laser

.

Up to this point, we have made no approximations, so this set of differential equations is exact. By supplying appropriate initial values c_n(0), we could in principle find an exact (i.e. non-perturbative) solution. This is easily done when there are only two energy levels (n = 1, 2), and the solution is useful for modelling systems like the ammonia

Ammonia

Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...

molecule. However, exact solutions are difficult to find when there are many energy levels, and one instead looks for perturbative solutions, which may be obtained by putting the equations in an integral form:

By repeatedly substituting this expression for c_n back into right hand side, we get an iterative solution

where, for example, the first-order term is

Many further results may be obtained, such as Fermi's golden rule

Fermi's golden rule

In quantum physics, Fermi's golden rule is a way to calculate the transition rate from one energy eigenstate of a quantum system into a continuum of energy eigenstates, due to a perturbation....

, which relates the rate of transitions between quantum states to the density of states at particular energies, and the Dyson series

Dyson series

In scattering theory, the Dyson series, formulated by British-born American physicist Freeman Dyson, is a perturbative series, and each term is represented by Feynman diagrams. This series diverges asymptotically, but in quantum electrodynamics at the second order the difference from...

, obtained by applying the iterative method to the time evolution operator

Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics)

, which is one of the starting points for the method of Feynman diagram

Feynman diagram

Method of Dyson series

Time dependent perturbations can be treated with the technique of Dyson series

Dyson series

. Taking Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

this has the formal solution

being

the time ordering operator such that

and

so that the exponential will represent the following Dyson series

Dyson series

.

Now, let us take the following perturbation problem

assuming that the parameter

is small and that we are able to solve the problem

. We do the following unitary transformation going to interaction picture

Interaction picture

In quantum mechanics, the Interaction picture is an intermediate between the Schrödinger picture and the Heisenberg picture. Whereas in the other two pictures either the state vector or the operators carry time dependence, in the interaction picture both carry part of the time dependence of...

or Dirac picture

Interaction picture

and so the Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

becomes

that can be solved through the above Dyson series

Dyson series

being this a perturbation series with small

. Using the solution of the unperturbed problem

and

(for the sake of simplicity we assume a pure discrete spectrum), we will have till first order

.

So, the system, initially in the unperturbed state

, due to the perturbation can go into the state

. The corresponding probability amplitude will be

and the corresponding transition probability will be given by Fermi's golden rule

Fermi's golden rule

In quantum physics, Fermi's golden rule is a way to calculate the transition rate from one energy eigenstate of a quantum system into a continuum of energy eigenstates, due to a perturbation....

.

Time independent perturbation theory can be derived from the time dependent perurbation theory. For this purpose, let us write the unitary evolution operator, obtained from the above Dyson series

Dyson series

, as

and we take the perturbation

time independent. Using the identity

with

for a pure discrete spectrum, we can write

We see that, at second order, we have to sum on all the intermediate states. We assume

and the asymptotic limit of larger times. This means that, at each contribution of the perturbation series, we have to add a multiplicative factor

in the integrands so that, the limit

will give back the final state of the system by eliminating all oscillating terms but keeping the secular ones.

must be postulated as being arbitrarily small. In this way we can compute the integrals and, separating the diagonal terms from the others, we have

where the time secular series yields the eigenvalues of the perturbed problem and the remaining part gives the corrections to the eigenfunctions. The unitary evolution operator is applied to whatever eigenstate of the unperturbed problem and, in this case, we will get a secular series that holds at small times.

Strong perturbation theory

In a similar way as for small perturbations, it is possible to develop a strong perturbation theory. Let us consider as usual the Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

and we consider the question if a dual Dyson series exists that applies in the limit of a perturbation increasingly large. This question can be answered in an affirmative way and the series is the well-known adiabatic series. This approach is quite general and can be shown in the following way. Let us consider the perturbation problem

being

. Our aim is to find a solution in the form

but a direct substitution into the above equation fails to produce useful results. This situation can be adjusted making a rescaling of the time variable as

producing the following meaningful equations

that can be solved once we know the solution of the leading order equation. But we know that in this case we can use the adiabatic approximation. When

does not depend on time one gets the Wigner-Kirkwood series that is often used in statistical mechanics

Statistical mechanics

Statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamicsThe terms statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics are used interchangeably...

. Indeed, in this case we introduce the unitary transformation

that defines a free picture as we are trying to eliminate the interaction term. Now, in dual way with respect to the small perturbations, we have to solve the Schrödinger equation

Schrödinger equation

and we see that the expansion parameter

appears only into the exponential and so, the corresponding Dyson series

Dyson series

, a dual Dyson series, is meaningful at large

s and is

After the rescaling in time

we can see that this is indeed a series in

justifying in this way the name of dual Dyson series. The reason is that we have obtained this series simply interchanging

and

and we can go from one to another applying this exchange. This is called duality principle in perturbation theory. The choice

yields, as already said, a Wigner-Kirkwood series that is a gradient expansion. The Wigner-Kirkwood series is a semiclassical series with eigenvalues given exactly as for WKB approximation

WKB approximation

In mathematical physics, the WKB approximation or WKB method is a method for finding approximate solutions to linear partial differential equations with spatially varying coefficients...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.