Quantum work distribution for a driven diatomic molecule

TL;DR

This paper calculates the quantum work distribution for a driven Morse oscillator, analyzing bound and scattering states, and compares exact and harmonic approximation results to understand quantum work in molecular systems.

Contribution

It provides exact expressions for transition probabilities in a driven Morse oscillator and compares quantum work distributions from exact and approximate models.

Findings

Work distribution includes discrete and continuous spectrum contributions

Exact transition probabilities are derived for a scale-invariant process

Harmonic approximation results are compared with exact Morse potential results

Abstract

We compute the quantum work distribution for a driven Morse oscillator. To this end, we solve the time-dependent dynamics for a scale-invariant process, from which the exact expressions for the transition probabilities are found. Special emphasis is put on the contributions to the work distribution from discrete (bound) and continuous (scattering) parts of the spectrum. The analysis is concluded by comparing the work distribution for the exact Morse potential and the one resulting from a harmonic approximation.