Quantum mechanical uncertainties and exact transition amplitudes for time dependent quadratic Hamiltonian

TL;DR

This paper derives a simple, exact propagator for time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonians, enabling analytical calculation of transition amplitudes and uncertainties, with applications to various quantum systems including the Paul trap.

Contribution

It introduces a straightforward method for obtaining the propagator of time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonians and applies it to several quantum systems, providing explicit formulas and insights.

Findings

Large quantum uncertainties near instability regions

Exact transition amplitudes for specific systems

Analytical trajectories for classical oscillators

Abstract

In this work we present the simplest generic form of the propagator for the time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian. We manifest the simplicity of our method by giving explicitly the propagators for a free particle in time-dependent electric field, forced harmonic oscillator and the Paul trap. Exact transition amplitudes and uncertainties are calculated analytically for the Paul trap and harmonic oscillator. The results show that near the instability regions very large quantum mechanical uncertainties are obtained as demonstrated in a special figure. The method is also applied to calculating the trajectory of a classical forced time-dependent harmonic oscillator.