English

Is the Adiabatic Approximation Inconsistent?

Quantum Physics 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

Marzlin and Sanders \cite{marzlin} have shown rigorously that the adiabatic approximation can be very inaccurate when applied to a Hamiltonian H(t)H(t) that generates the evolution U(t)U^{\dagger} (t) even if it gives an excellent approximation to the evolution U(t)U(t) generated by a dual Hamiltonian h(t)h(t). We show that this is not inconsistent with the adiabatic theorem and find that in general even if h(t)h(t) satisfies the conditions of the adiabatic theorem, H(t)H(t) will likely violate those conditions.

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0510131,
  title  = {Is the Adiabatic Approximation Inconsistent?},
  author = {Solomon Duki and H. Mathur and Onuttom Narayan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0510131},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Expanded discussion of connection between Refs.[7] and [8] included