On the WKB Approximation to the Propagator for Arbitrary Hamiltonians.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to obtain a general expression for the WKB approximation to the propagator corresponding to an arbitrary Hamiltonian operator. In an earlier publication we determined a range of validity of Van Vleck's well-known formula, which was known not to be universally valid. The approximation derived here, generalizing Van Vleck's formula, is also valid beyond quantum-mechanical applications such as the Fokker-Planck equation for diffusion processes. We operate in n dimensions and summation over repeated indices is implied.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1980
Accession Number
ADA091307

Entities

People

  • Maurice M. Mizrahi

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Data Science
  • Databases
  • Differential Equations
  • Diffusion
  • Distribution Theory
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Equations
  • Fokker Planck Equations
  • Governments
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Integrals
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Path Integrals
  • Physics
  • Statistics

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing