Related papers: An ode to instantons
This paper is a pedagogical yet critical introduction to the quantum description of unstable systems, mostly at the level of a graduate quantum mechanics course. Quantum decays appear in many different fields of physics, and their…
In this article, we formulate the study of the unitary time evolution of systems consisting of an infinite number of uncoupled time-dependent harmonic oscillators in mathematically rigorous terms. We base this analysis on the theory of a…
We study the path-integral formalism in the imaginary-time to show its validity in a case with a metastable ground state. The well-known method based on the bounce solution leads to the imaginary part of the energy even for a state that is…
A new dynamical paradigm merging quantum dynamics with cosmology is discussed. Time evolution involves a genuine passage of time, which distinguishes the formalism from those where dynamics in space is equivalent to statics in space-time.…
The classical and quantum dynamics of simple time-reparametrization- invariant models containing two degrees of freedom are studied in detail. Elimination of one ``clock'' variable through the Hamiltonian constraint leads to a description…
We investigate false vacuum decay of a relativistic scalar field initialized in the metastable minimum of an asymmetric double-well potential. The transition to the true ground state is a well-defined initial-value problem in real time,…
We characterize good clocks, which are naturally subject to fluctuations, in statistical terms. We also obtain the master equation that governs the evolution of quantum systems according to these clocks and find its general solution. This…
Vacuum decay in de Sitter space is a process of great physical interest, as it allows to rule out cosmological models in the early and current Universe. Its rate may be described in terms of an instanton in Euclidean space called bounce and…
Quasiclassical methods are used to define dynamical tunneling times in models of quantum cosmological bounces. These methods provide relevant new information compared with the traditional treatment of quantum tunneling by means of tunneling…
Semiclassical mechanics of systems with first-class constraints is developed. Starting from the quantum theory, one investigates such objects as semiclassical states and observables, semiclassical inner product, semiclassical gauge…
The transient response of a stationary state of a quantum particle in a step potential to an instantaneous change in the step height (a simplified model for a sudden bias switch in an electronic semiconductor device) is solved exactly by…
Classical limits of quantum systems are shown to lead to different conceptions of spaces different from the classical one underlying the process of quantization of such systems. The accent is put in situations where traces of…
We present some dynamic and entropic considerations about the evolution of a continuous time quantum walk implementing the clock of an autonomous machine. On a simple model, we study in quite explicit terms the Lindblad evolution of the…
The dynamics of a quantum nonlinear oscillator is studied in terms of its quasi-flow, a dynamical mapping of the classical phase plane that represents the time-evolution of the quantum observables. Explicit expressions are derived for the…
The time-dependence of correlation functions under the influence of classical equations of motion is described by an exact evolution equation. For conservative systems thermodynamic equilibrium is a fixed point of these equations. We show…
We show that strongly localized wave functions occur around classical bifurcations. Near a saddle node bifurcation the scaling of the inverse participation ratio on Planck's constant and the dependence on the parameter is governed by an…
We present a method for obtaining a hierarchy of rigorous bounds on the time-evolution of a quantum mechanical system from an arbitrary initial state, systematically generalizing Mandelstam-Tamm-like relations. For any fixed level in the…
The main goal of this paper is to give a rigorous mathematical description of systems for processing quantum information. To do it authors consider abstract state machines as models of classical computational systems. This class of machines…
We derive a "classical-quantum" approximation scheme for a broad class of bipartite quantum systems from fully quantum dynamics. In this approximation, one subsystem evolves via classical equations of motion with quantum corrections, and…
We determine the late-time dynamics of a generic spin ensemble with inhomogeneous broadening - equivalently, qubits with arbitrary Zeeman splittings - coupled to a dissipative environment with strength decreasing as $1/t$. The approach to…