Fall of a Particle to the Center of a Singular Potential: Classical vs. Quantum Exact Solutions

TL;DR

This paper compares classical and quantum solutions for a particle falling into a singular potential, revealing striking similarities and self-similar attractor solutions at zero energy.

Contribution

It provides exact classical and quantum solutions for particle fall into singular potentials and analyzes their self-similarity and attractor properties.

Findings

Quantum and classical solutions are self-similar at zero energy.

Wave function localization contracts to a point during fall.

Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian, leading to time-dependent norm.

Abstract

Exact solutions describing a fall of a particle to the center of a non-regularized singular potential in classical and quantum cases are obtained and compared. We inspect the quantum problem with the help of the conventional Schr\"{o}dinger's equation. During the fall, the wave function spatial localization area contracts into a single zero-dimensional point. For the fall-admitting potentials, the Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian. Because of that, the wave function norm occurs time-dependent. It demands an extension to this case of the continuity equation and rules for mean value calculations. Surprisingly, the quantum and classical solutions exhibit striking similarities. In particular, both are self-similar at the particle energy equals zero. The characteristic spatial scales of the quantum and classical self-similar solutions obey the same temporal dependence. We present arguments indicating that these self-similar solutions are attractors to a broader class of solutions, describing the fall at finite energy of the particle.