Fast driven quantum systems: interaction picture and boundary conditions

Abstract

The work continues systematic applications of the method developed by Di Martino and Facchi (2015) for obtaining, for systems with variable boundary conditions, an equivalent Schrödinger equation with constant boundary conditions. From the resulting equation with rapidly varying terms, an effective equation is then derived for the averaged (slowly varying) wave functions. In this work, we obtain this effective equation for rapidly driven systems in the interaction picture (in first order in reverse frequency of external driving). This is the most suitable picture for systems with external driving. As an example, an extended two-state fast driven system is considered. As a second example, we consider the one-dimensional motion of a particle in a potential box with high-frequency oscillations of its width. Oscillations of width lead to additional terms in the effective equation proportional not only to the second derivative of the potential, but to the first derivative as well. In the case of width oscillations, compared to the oscillations of the box as a whole, the changes are even more significant. In our examples, phenomena such as slow averaged oscillations, resonance, the appearance of volcano potentials are observed, as is often the case in driven systems.