English

Slow propagation velocities in Schr\"odinger operators with large periodic potential

Mathematical Physics 2024-06-28 v3 math.MP

Abstract

Schr\"odinger operators with periodic potential have generally been shown to exhibit ballistic transport. In this work, we investigate if the propagation velocity, while positive, can be made arbitrarily small by a suitable choice of the periodic potential. We consider the discrete one-dimensional Schr\"odinger operator Δ+μV\Delta+\mu V, where Δ\Delta is the discrete Laplacian, VV is a pp-periodic non-degenerate potential, and μ>0\mu>0. We establish a Lieb-Robinson-type bound with a group velocity that scales like O(1/μ)\mathcal{O}(1/\mu) as μ\mu\rightarrow\infty. This shows the existence of a linear light cone with a maximum velocity of quantum propagation that is decaying at a rate proportional to 1/μ1/\mu. Furthermore, we prove that the asymptotic velocity, or the average velocity of the time-evolved state, exhibits a decay proportional to O(1/μp1)\mathcal{O}(1/\mu^{p-1}) as μ\mu\rightarrow\infty.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.11508,
  title  = {Slow propagation velocities in Schr\"odinger operators with large periodic potential},
  author = {Houssam Abdul-Rahman and Mohammed Darras and Christoph Fischbacher and Günter Stolz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.11508},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

24 pages, Added references, corrected typos