Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-129). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Commonly held opinion is that particle trajectory descriptions are incompatible with quantum mechanics. Louis de Broglie (1926) first proposed a way to include trajectories in quantum mechanics, but the idea was abandoned until David Bohm (1952) re-invented and improved the theory. Bohm interprets the particle trajectories as physically real; for example, an electron actually is a particle moving on a well defined trajectory with a position and momentum at all times. By design, Bohm's trajectories never make predictions that differ from standard quantum mechanics, and their existence cannot be experimentally verified. Three new methods to obtain Bohm's particle trajectories are presented. The methods are non-dynamical, and utilize none of Bohm's equations of motion; in fact, two of the methods have no equations for a particle's trajectory. Instead, all three methods use only the evolving probability density ρ=ψ*ψ to extract the trajectories. The first two methods rest upon probability conservation and density sampling, while the third method employs the informational or geometrical construction of centroidal Voronoi tessellations. In one-dimension all three methods are proved to be equivalent to Bohm's particle trajectories. For higher dimensional configuration spaces, the first two methods can be used in limited situations, but the last method can be applied in all cases. Typically, the resulting higher dimensional non-dynamical trajectories are also identical to Bohm. Together the three methods point to a new interpretation of Bohm's particle trajectories, namely, the Bohm trajectories are simply a kinematic portrayal of the evolution of the probability density. In addition, the new methods can be used to measure Schrödinger's wave function and Planck's constant. / text

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Physics, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. Xx-Xx).

A novel method for integrating the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is presented. The moving boundary truncation (MBT) method is a time-dependent adaptive method that can significantly reduce the number of grid points needed to perform accurate wave packet propagation while maintaining stability. Hydrodynamic quantum trajectories are used to adaptively define the boundaries and boundary conditions of a fixed grid. The result is a significant reduction in the number of grid points needed to perform accurate calculations. A variety of model potential energy surfaces are used to evaluate the method. Excellent agreement with fixed boundary grids was obtained for each example. By moving only the boundary points, stability was increased to the level of the full fixed grid. Variations of the MBT method are developed which allow it to be applied to any potential energy surface and used with any propagation method. A variation of MBT is applied to the collinear H+H₂ reaction (using a LEPS potential) to demonstrate the stability and accuracy. Reaction probabilities are calculated for the three dimensional non-rotating O(³P)+H₂ and O(³P)+HD reactions to demonstrate that the MBT can be used with a variety of numerical propagation techniques. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Cette thèse décrit une série d’expériences mettant en lumière l’action en retour de la mesure et la décohérence pour un système quantique ouvert élémentaire, le qubit supraconducteur. Ces observations sont rendues possibles grâce au développement récent d’amplificateurs Josephson proches de la limite quantique. L’information extraite du système peut être utilisée dans des boucles de rétroaction quantique. Pour stabiliser un état arbitraire prédéterminé du qubit, une mesure projective est réalisée périodiquement et une boucle de rétroaction permet de corriger les erreurs détectées. En se substituant à l'environnement et en réalisant une mesure hétérodyne continue de la fluorescence du qubit, nous reconstituons des trajectoires quantiques individuelles lors de sa relaxation. En conditionnant cette détection au résultat d'une mesure projective postérieure, nous déterminons les weak values du signal de fluorescence. En formant une boucle de rétroaction continue à partir de ce signal, nous stabilisons également un état arbitraire du qubit. Enfin, nous observons dans une dernière expérience la dynamique quantique Zénon d'un mode micro-onde, induite par son couplage au qubit. / This thesis presents a series of experiments highlighting measurement back action and decoherence in a basic open quantum system, the superconducting qubit. These observations are enabled by recent advances in amplification close to the quantum limit using Josephson circuits. The information extracted from the system can then be used as input in quantum feedback. A stroboscopic projective readout is performed and a feedback loop is used to correct for detected errors, thus stabilizing an arbitrary predetermined state of the qubit. When monitoring continuously the environment of the qubit by heterodyne detection of its fluorescence, we reconstruct individual quantum trajectories during relaxation. Conditioning this detection to the outcome of a following projective measurement, we access the weak values of the fluorescence signal. Included in a continuous feedback loop, this detection is also used to stabilize an arbitrary state of the qubit. Finally, a last experiment witnesses quantum Zeno dynamics of a resonant microwave mode, entailed by its coupling to the qubit.

We have directed much attention towards developing quantum trajectory methods which can accurately predict the transmission probabilities for a variety of quantum mechanical barrier scattering processes. One promising method involves solving the complex quantum Hamilton-Jacobi equation with the Derivative Propagation Method (DPM). We present this method, termed complex valued DPM (CVDPM(n)). CVDPM(n) has been successfully employed in the Lagrangian frame to accurately compute transmission probabilities on 'thick' one dimensional Eckart and Gaussian potential surfaces. CVDPM(n) is able to reproduce accurate results with a much lower order of approximation than is required by real valued quantum trajectory methods, from initial wave packet energies ranging from the tunneling case (E[subscript o]=0) to high energy cases (twice the barrier height). We successfully extended CVDPM(n) to two-dimensional problems (one translational degree of freedom representing an Eckart or Gaussian barrier coupled to a vibrational degree of freedom) in the Lagrangian framework with great success. CVDPM helps to explain why barrier scattering from "thick" barriers is a much more well posed problem than barrier scattering from "thin" barriers. Though results in these two cases are in very good agreement with grid methods, the search for an appropriate set of initial conditions (termed an 'isochrone) from which to launch the trajectories leads to a time-consuming search problem that is reminiscent of the rootsearching problem from semi-classical dynamics. In order to circumvent the isochrone problem, we present CVDPM(n) equations of motion which are derived and implemented in the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian frame for a metastable potential as well as the Eckart and Gaussian surfaces. In this way, the isochrone problem can be circumvented but at the cost of introducing other computational difficulties. In order to understand why CVDPM may give better transmission probabilities than real valued counterparts, much attention we have been studying and applying numerical analytic continuation techniques to visualize complex-extended wave packets as well as the complex-extended quantum potential. Numerical analytic continuation techniques have also been used to analytically continue a discrete real-valued potential into the complex plane for CVDPM with very promising results.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on Aug. 6, 2009). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.