English

Post-adiabatic forces and Lagrangians with higher-order derivatives

Quantum Physics 2009-12-27 v2

Abstract

We study a slow classical system [particle] coupled to a fast quantum system with discrete energy spectrum. We adiabatically exclude the quantum system and construct an autonomous dynamics for the classical particle in successive orders of the small ratio ϵ\epsilon of the characteristic times. It is known that in the order ϵ0\epsilon^0 the particle gets an additional [Born-Oppenheimer] potential, while in the order \eps1\eps^1 it feels an effective magnetic field related to the Berry phase. In the order ϵ2\epsilon^2 the motion of the classical particle can be reduced to a free [geodesic] motion on a curved Riemannian manifold, with the metric generated by the excluded quantum system. This motion has a number of unusual features, e.g., it combines subspaces of different (Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian) signature for the metric tensor. In the order ϵ3\epsilon^3 the motion of the classical particle is still described by a Lagrangian, but the latter linearly depends on the particle's acceleration. This implies the existence of a spin tensor [non-orbital angular momentum] for the particle. This spin tensor is related to the momentum via an analogue of the zitterbewegung effect. The Hamiltonian structure of the system is non-trivial and is defined via non-linear Poisson brackets. The linear dependence of the effective classical Lagrangian on higher-order derivatives is seen as well in the higher orders ϵn\epsilon^n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0905.1596,
  title  = {Post-adiabatic forces and Lagrangians with higher-order derivatives},
  author = {A. E. Allahverdyan and B. Mehmani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.1596},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Submitted to Journal of Physics A

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:00:32.148Z