English

Suppressed dispersion for a randomly kicked quantum particle in a Dirac comb

Mathematical Physics 2015-05-19 v2 math.MP

Abstract

I study a model for a massive one-dimensional particle in a singular periodic potential that is receiving kicks from a gas. The model is described by a Lindblad equation in which the Hamiltonian is a Schr\"odinger operator with a periodic δ\delta-potential and the noise has a frictionless form arising in a Brownian limit. I prove that an emergent Markov process in a semi-classical limit governs the momentum distribution in the extended-zone scheme. The main result is a central limit theorem for a time integral of the momentum process, which is closely related to the particle's position. When normalized by t5/4t^{5/4}, the integral process converges to a time-changed Brownian motion whose rate depends on the momentum process. The scaling t5/4t^{5/4} contrasts with t3/2t^{3/2}, which would be expected for the case of a smooth periodic potential or for a comparable classical process. The difference is a wave effect driven by Bragg reflections that occur when the particle's momentum is kicked near the half-spaced reciprocal lattice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1008.4502,
  title  = {Suppressed dispersion for a randomly kicked quantum particle in a Dirac comb},
  author = {Jeremy Thane Clark},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.4502},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

76 pages; I expanded the introduction, corrected errors, restructured the final section, and added appendices

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:05:30.149Z