Paper 4, Section II, C

Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Part II, 2017

The Hamiltonian for a quantum system in the Schrödinger picture is

H0+λV(t),H_{0}+\lambda V(t),

where H0H_{0} is independent of time and the parameter λ\lambda is small. Define the interaction picture corresponding to this Hamiltonian and derive a time evolution equation for interaction picture states.

Let n|n\rangle and m|m\rangle be eigenstates of H0H_{0} with distinct eigenvalues EnE_{n} and EmE_{m} respectively. Show that if the system was in the state n|n\rangle in the remote past, then the probability of measuring it to be in a different state m|m\rangle at a time tt is

λ22tdtmV(t)nei(EmEn)t/2+O(λ3)\frac{\lambda^{2}}{\hbar^{2}}\left|\int_{-\infty}^{t} d t^{\prime}\left\langle m\left|V\left(t^{\prime}\right)\right| n\right\rangle e^{i\left(E_{m}-E_{n}\right) t^{\prime} / \hbar}\right|^{2}+O\left(\lambda^{3}\right)

Let the system be a simple harmonic oscillator with H0=ω(aa+12)H_{0}=\hbar \omega\left(a^{\dagger} a+\frac{1}{2}\right), where [a,a]=1\left[a, a^{\dagger}\right]=1. Let 0|0\rangle be the ground state which obeys a0=0a|0\rangle=0. Suppose

V(t)=ept(a+a),V(t)=e^{-p|t|}\left(a+a^{\dagger}\right),

with p>0p>0. In the remote past the system was in the ground state. Find the probability, to lowest non-trivial order in λ\lambda, for the system to be in the first excited state in the far future.