Niall D. Whelan

Edge diffraction, trace formulae and the cardioid billiard

We study the effect of edge diffraction on the semiclassical analysis of two- dimensional quantum systems by deriving a trace formula which incorporates paths hitting any number of vertices embedded in an arbitrary potential. This formula is used to study the cardioid billiard, which has a single vertex. The formula works well for most of the short orbits we analysed but fails for a few diffractive orbits due to a breakdown in the formalism for certain geometries. We extend the symbolic dynamics to account for diffractive orbits and use it to show that in the presence of parity symmetry the trace formula decomposes in an elegant manner such that for the cardioid billiard the diffractive orbits have no effect on the odd spectrum. Including diffractive orbits helps resolve peaks in the density of even states but does not appear to affect their positions. An analysis of the level statistics shows no significant difference between spectra with and without diffraction. PACS numbers: 0320, 0365S, 0545

A Matrix Element for Chaotic Tunnelling Rates and Scarring Intensities

Abstract It is shown that tunnelling splittings in ergodic double wells and resonant widths in ergodic metastable wells can be approximated as easily calculated matrix elements involving the wavefunction in the neighbourhood of a certain real orbit. This orbit is a continuation of the complex orbit which crosses the barrier with minimum imaginary action. The matrix element is computed by integrating across the orbit in a surface of section representation, and uses only the wavefunction in the allowed region and the stability properties of the orbit. When the real orbit is periodic, the matrix element is a natural measure of the degree of scarring of the wavefunction. This scarring measure is canonically invariant and independent of the choice of surface of section, within semiclassical error. The result can alternatively be interpretated as the autocorrelation function of the state with respect to a transfer operator which quantises a certain complex surface of section mapping. The formula provides an efficient numerical method for computing tunnelling rates while avoiding the need for the exceedingly precise diagonalisation endemic to numerical tunnelling calculations.

Weyl Expansion for Symmetric Potentials

Abstract We present a semiclassical expansion of the smooth part of the density of states in potentials with some form of symmetry. The density of states of each irreducible representation is separately evaluated using the Wigner transforms of the projection operators. For discrete symmetries the expansion yields a formally exact but asymptotic series in ħ, while for the rotational SO(n) symmetries the expansion requires averaging over angular momentum as well as energy. A numerical example is given in two dimensions, in which we calculate the leading terms of the Weyl expansion as well as the leading periodic orbit contributions to the symmetry reduced level density.

Semiclassical trace formulas for noninteracting identical particles

We extend the Gutzwiller trace formula to systems of noninteracting identical particles. The standard relation for isolated orbits does not apply since the energy of each particle is separately conserved causing the periodic orbits to occur in continuous families. The identical nature of the particles also introduces discrete permutational symmetries. We exploit the formalism of Creagh and Littlejohn [Phys. Rev. A 44, 836 (1991)], who have studied semiclassical dynamics in the presence of continuous symmetries, to derive many-body trace formulas for the full and symmetry-reduced densities of states. Numerical studies of the three-particle cardioid billiard are used to explicitly illustrate and test the results of the theory.

Semiclassical trace formulas for two identical particles

Semiclassical periodic orbit theory is used in many branches of physics. However, most applications of the theory have been to systems that involve only single-particle dynamics. In this paper, we develop a semiclassical formalism to describe the density-of-states for two noninteracting particles. This includes accounting properly for particle exchange symmetry. As specific examples, we study two identical particles in a disk and in a cardioid. In each case, we demonstrate that the semiclassical formalism correctly reproduces the quantum densities.

Statistics of chaotic tunneling

The distribution of tunneling rates in the presence of classical chaos is derived. We use classical information about tunneling trajectories plus random matrix theory arguments about wave function overlaps. The distribution depends on the stability of a specific tunneling orbit and is not universal, though it does reduce to the universal Porter-Thomas form when the orbit is very unstable. For some situations there may be systematic deviations due to scarring of real periodic orbits. The theory is tested in a model problem and possible experimental realizations are discussed.

Combined paramagnetic and diamagnetic response of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7

It has been predicted that the zero frequency density of states of YBCO in the superconducting phase can display interesting anisotropy effects when a magnetic field is applied parallel to the copper-oxide planes, due to the diamagnetic response of the quasiparticles. In this paper we incorporate paramagnetism into the theory and show that it lessens the anisotropy and can even eliminate it altogether. At the same time paramagnetism also changes the scaling with the square root of the magnetic field first deduced by Volovik leading to an experimentally testable prediction. We also map out the analytic structure of the zero frequency density of states as a function of the diamagnetic and paramagnetic energies. At certain critical magnetic field values we predict kinks as we vary the magnetic field. However, these probably lie beyond currently accessible field strengths.

Magnetic field as a probe of gap energy scales inYBa2Cu3O7−x

Among high T_c materials, the YBCO (YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}) compounds are special since they have superconducting chains as well as planes. We show that a discontinuity in the density of states as a function of magnetic field may appear at a new energy scale, characteristic of the chain and distinct from that set by the d wave gap. This is observable in experimental studies of the thermodynamical properties of these systems, such as the specific heat.