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Phase-Modulus Relations for a Reflected Particle

Quantum Physics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We formulate analytically the reflection of a one dimensional, expanding free wave-packet (wp) from an infinite barrier. Three types of wp's are considered, representing an electron, a molecule and a classical object. We derive a threshold criterion for the values of the dynamic parameters so that reciprocal (Kramers-Kronig) relations hold {\it in the time domain} between the log-modulus of the wp and the (analytic part of its) phase acquired during the reflection. For an electron, in a typical case, the relations are shown to be satisfied. For a molecule the modulus-phase relations take a more complicated form, including the so called Blaschke term. For a classical particle characterized by a large mean momentum (K>>trajectorylength(sizeofwavepacket)2>>>sizeofwavepacket\hbar K >> \frac{\hbar trajectory length} {(size of wave-packet)^2} >>> \frac{\hbar}{size of wave-packet}) the rate of acquisition of the relative phase between different wp components is enormous (for a bullet it is typically 101410^{14} GHertz) with also a very large value for the phase maximum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0406190,
  title  = {Phase-Modulus Relations for a Reflected Particle},
  author = {A. Yahalom and R. Englman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0406190},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

15 pages, 3 figures