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Phys. Rev. A 53, R1974 - R1977 (1996)

Determination of occupation probabilities from time-averaged position distributions

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Thomas Richter * and Alfred Wünsche †
Arbeitsgruppe "Nichtklassische Strahlung" der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 5, 12489 Berlin, Germany

Rapid Communication Received 28 November 1995

We show that the occupation probabilities of the energy eigenstates excited in a wave packet moving in an arbitrary one-dimensional potential can be determined directly from the time-averaged position distribution. The sampling functions are the derivative of the product of the usual eigenfunctions and the linearly independent (non-normalizable) solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the same energy eigenvalue. This is the same structure as those for the harmonic-oscillator case.


©1996 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.53.R1974
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.53.R1974
PACS: 42.50.Ar, 03.65.Bz, 33.90.+h

* FAX: +4930 6392 3990. Electronic address: richter@photon.fta-berlin.de
† FAX: +4930 6392 3990. Electronic address: wuensche@photon.fta-berlin.de

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