Nonadiabatic transitions in exactly solvable quantum mechanical multichannel model: role of level curvature and counterintuitive behavior

TL;DR

This paper presents an exact solution to a multichannel quantum model showing that nonadiabatic transitions can preserve initial state memory even with many states, revealing non-ergodic behavior in large systems.

Contribution

It provides an exact analytical solution for a time-dependent multichannel quantum model and uncovers the persistence of initial state memory in the large N limit.

Findings

Survival probability remains finite as N increases.

Nonadiabatic transitions can preserve initial state information.

System exhibits non-ergodic behavior even with broad coupling distributions.

Abstract

We derive an exact solution of an explicitly time-dependent multichannel model of quantum mechanical nonadiabatic transitions. In the limit N >>1, where N is the number of states, we find that the survival probability of the initially populated state remains finite despite an almost arbitrary choice of a large number of parameters. This observation proves that quantum mechanical nonadiabatic transitions among a large number of states can effectively keep memory about the initial state of the system. This property can lead to a strongly non-ergodic behavior even in the thermodynamic limit of some systems with a broad distribution of coupling constants and the lack of energy conservation.