Geometric Methods in Physics.

XXX Workshop 2011 Trends in Mathematics, 229237 c 2013 Springer Basel

Factorization Method and the Position-dependent Mass Problem

Sara Cruz y Cruz
To Professor Bogdan Mielnik, for all his contributions in Physics

Abstract. The dynamics of position-dependent mass systems is considered from both, classical and quantum mechanical points of view, by means of the factorization method. Some examples are presented, with particular choices of the mass function, for the harmonic oscillator in order to illustrate our results. In the quantum regime, new isospectral position-dependent mass potentials are also constructed by the intertwining technique. Mathematics Subject Classication (2010). 81Q60; 34L10. Keywords. Position-dependent mass, factorization method, isospectral potentials.

1. Introduction
The problem of describing the motion of systems endowed with position-dependent mass (PDM) has attracted interest since they appear in many physical problems. These include, e.g., the study of the electronic properties of semiconductors [13], quantum dots [4], the description of the dynamics of non linear oscillators [5, 6] as well as classical systems in curved spaces [7], just to mention few ones. The very concept of a PDM system is a fundamental problem which is far from being completely understood. Many contributions have been developed over the last years in dierent approaches [819]. In the quantum mechanical regime, it is well known that an ambiguity in ordering of the mass and the momentum operators appears and the goal is to choose the proper Hamiltonian. Some arguments have been given to this respect, e.g., the Galilean invariance [8] and the correspondence between classical and quantum PDM potentials [16]. In some other cases the ordering is xed by the boundary conditions imposed on a particular system [19]. The generation of exactly solvable PDM problems has also been considered. The

230

S. Cruz y Cruz

factorization method [2022] has been explored in [1017]. In this work we present the factorization method applied to the solution of the PDM problem in the classical as well as in the quantum mechanical frames. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the classical case is considered and some examples are presented for the harmonic oscillator algebra. In Section 3 the quantum mechanical problem is discussed and some new PDM potentials isospectral to the harmonic oscillator are constructed. We end this contribution with some general remarks.

2. Classical position-dependent mass systems

Consider the classical position-dependent mass system described by the standard Hamiltonian 2 + () (1) = 2() where and are the canonical variables of position and linear momentum. The mass () > 0 and the potential () are position-dependent functions setting the domain of denition () of the Hamiltonian. The problem can be addressed from two points of view: in the rst one and are known and the phase space motion is determined by reducing the PDM problem to an equivalent CM one; in the second case, it is assumed that there is an algebraic structure xing the potential and the phase space trajectories in terms of () [23] (see also [16]). In this work, the second approach is considered: the explicit form of the potential as well as the dynamics are determined from the algebraic properties of the system, by the factorization method. Suppose that the Hamiltonian can be factorized in terms of two complex functions [23] + ()() (2) = () 2() in the form = + + = + + , (3)

with the factorization constant, , functions of the position and a function of the energy of the system. Suppose, additionally, that , close the following algebra in terms of Poisson brackets { } { +} (4) = (), , = () , , where is a constant. Observe that two complex-conjugate, non autonomous integrals of motion can be constructed in the form = () ,
2

(5)

whose values fulll + = = , being the total energy of the system. Thus, making = 0 , the phase space trajectories can be written in

Factorization Method and the Position-dependent Mass Problem terms of two parameters ( , 0 ) as ( ) 1 () = cos (() + 0 ) , () 1 2 ( ) () sin (() + 0 ) . () = ()

231

(6) (7)

As an example, let us consider the harmonic oscillator of frequency . One can nd that for this simple system () = 1, () = 1 and = , leading to ( )2 0 2 0 2 () = (), () = () + (8) 2 2 with () = ()/0 and 0 a constant with dimensions of mass. Hence, under the transformation (, ) = / (), () = () (9) the Hamiltonian takes the form of a CM harmonic oscillator of position and momentum . Note, however, that for some choices of () the transformation (9) may not map () onto the whole real line as required if should represent the position of the CM oscillator [16], meaning that there are important dierences between PDM and CM problems for those cases. Below, we will consider two mass functions in order to illustrate this approach. In the rst place consider the regular mass 1 leading to the potential 1 1 () = 0 , 1 + ()2 1 () = 0 2 arcsinh2 2 2 (10)

with a constant in inverse position units (observe that the case of constant mass is recovered in the limit 0). In this case we have 2( ) 1 cos ( + 0 ) (11) 1 () = sinh 0 20 ( ) 1 () = sin ( + 0 ) . (12) 1 + (())2 Figure 1 shows the potential 1 and some phase trajectories for dierent values of the total energy of the system. One can note that they are soft deformations of that of the CM oscillator, with the position and momentum taking, in principle, arbitrary values. Next, we consider the singular mass 2 with potential 2 2 () = 0 , ()2 2 () = 0 2 2 ln 2 2 (13)

232

S. Cruz y Cruz

Figure 1. The potential and phase space trajectories for 1 with = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 2 for = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. In these graphics 0 = 2, = 2, = 0.8, = 0.5 and = . Inner curves correspond to lower energies. for which 2 () =

2( ) 1 exp cos ( + 0 ) 0 20 ( ) sin ( + 0 ) . 2 () = ()

(14) (15)

Figure 1 shows the potential and phase trajectories for 2 . In contrast to the previous case, it is evident the presence of a singularity, conning the motion of the system to a region given by the domain of denition of (). It is worthwhile to mention that, even the unusual form of the mass, the behavior of the phase space variables is quite regular. The presence of a divergence in the mass function appears as a potential barrier suggesting that one can dene oscillators in bounded domains by introducing masses with singularities.

3. Quantum position-dependent mass systems

In the quantum mechanical regime, it is well known that the canonical variables , do not commute and an ambiguity ordering appears in expressions containing products of these variables. A general hermitian Hamiltonian in this case can be dened as 1 1 = 2 + (), (16) + = , 2 2 with the ordering parameter ( = 1/2). As mentioned before, the choice of this parameter has been addressed in several ways [8, 16, 19]. In this work it is kept arbitrary, with no more assumptions on a particular ordering of and . Similar to the classical case, the form of the potential is found from the algebraic structure underlying the system. Therefore, the eigenvalue equation () = () (17) for which the spectrum is well known, can be studied by means of the factorization method.

Factorization Method and the Position-dependent Mass Problem Suppose then that can be factorized in terms of two linear operators + = + (), = + () 2 2 in the form = + + . In the position representation = /; hence, dening the dierential ator 1 , D= () one may write ( ) 1 + D + = 2 + D (ln ()) + () 2 2 2D (ln ()) + (). = D + 2

233

(18) (19) oper(20)

(21) (22)

It is not dicult to show that the function () must satisfy the Riccati equation ( ) 1 2 = (23) D + 2 2 + (D ln ) + 4 2 while ( ) 1 = 2D + 2 + (24) D2 ln . 4 For the case in which the factorizing operators close the harmonic oscillator alge+ bra, i.e., [ , ] = , we have ( ) 0 2 1 () = () 2 + D ln (), (25) 2 4 [
+ ,

xing () as

( )2 ) 1 2 () + + D2 ln () 4 ( )2 1 22 + (D ln ())2 , (26) 4 ) } { ( which is isospectral to the CM harmonic oscillator: ( ) = = + 1 2 , and lead to wave functions () given by 1 ( + ) 0 () (27) () = ! 0 2 () = 2 (

where 0 () is the ground state dened by 0 () = 0. At this point, it is important to stress that the subscript in distinguishes dierent potentials for dierent orderings of the kinetic term. However, the Hamiltonian is the same for any value of , and the subscript only labels dierent

234

S. Cruz y Cruz

orderings of and . Therefore, neither the spectrum, nor the eigenfunctions of should depend on . Indeed, the substitution of (25) into (18) gives 0 2 (28) = = D (D ln ) + 2 2 2 2 which are actually independent of the ordering parameter (see [17]). Note also that ) ( 0 2 1/2 1/2 = 1/2 a , D + = (29) 2 2 of the CM harmonic oscillator where we can identify to a as the ladder operators by making the correspondence (), 0 D . In this way, if 0 () = ()0 ( ()), then 0 ( ) must satisfy ( ) 0 2 + 0 ( ) = 0 (30) 2 20 which is nothing but the equation dening the ground state of the CM harmonic oscillator. The whole set of wave functions () are hence constructed as ( ) 1/2 () = () () , (31) with ( ) the wave functions of the constant mass harmonic oscillator, consistently with the point canonical transformation [9]. Some plots of potential and corresponding wave functions are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Position-dependent mass potentials and its corresponding rst 4 wave functions for masses 1 (left) and 2 (right). Observe that the potentials depend on the ordering parameter , upper curves correspond to smaller values of . Note though, that the wave functions are the same for any value of . Here we have used 0 = 2, = 2, = 0.8 and = 0, 0.25, 0.35, 0.5. Observe that the PDM harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian can be also factorized as . (32) = + 2

Factorization Method and the Position-dependent Mass Problem

235

It is well known, for the CM case, that the operators are not unique [20]. It is not dicult to prove this fact also for the PDM potentials, indeed, () fullls the Riccati equation ( ( ) ) 1 1 2 2 D + 2 2 + (33) (D ln ) + = 2 + D2 ln + 4 4 2 2 with the general solution ( ) 0 2 1 (, ) = () 2 + D ln () 2 4 ] [ 0 2 0 2 , (34) + D ln + 2 0 leading to new (-independent) operators [ ] 2 0 2 0 = + D ln + 2 0

(35)

such that = + /2. It is clear that these operators do not close the by apHeisenberg algebra, meaning that we can construct new Hamiltonians plying a Darboux transformation [20] () = + + = 1 2 + (, ) 2 2 [ (, ) = () 2 D2 ln + which is non singular whenever > shown below.
2 .

(36) ]

with

0 2

(37)

Some plots for the new potentials are

Figure 3. Some new PDM potentials isospectral to the harmonic oscillator for dierent choices of the new parameter . Plots on (a) correspond to 1 while those in (b) to 2 . In this graphics 0 = 2, = 2, = 0.8, = 0, = 0.75, 0.8, 1 and .

236

S. Cruz y Cruz

Additionally, both Hamiltonians show the intertwining relations = + , and the wave functions () of can be easily con , + = structed by the application of on the wave functions of :

() = + 1 (),

= 1, 2, 3, . . .

(38)

corresponding to the spectral values . There is, though, an isolated eigenvector , orthonormal to the whole set { (), = 1, 2, . . .}, but not connected 0 () of to { (), = 0, 1, 2, . . .} by dened as 0 () = 0, and corresponding to the eigenvalue 0 [20]. (39)

4. Concluding remarks
We have considered the PDM harmonic oscillator from classical and quantum mechanical points of view. In both cases the problem was addressed by means of the factorization method. The technique is consistent with the point canonical transformation. Some examples were presented in order to show the eect of a regular and singular variable mass in the dynamics of the system. In the quantum case, the solution was given for a generalized ordering between and . New potentials, isospectral to the CM harmonic oscillators, were obtained from the intertwining relations. The factorization method can be also generalized for dierent underlying algebraic structure of both, classical and quantum PDM problems [23]. In the quantum case, new PDM supersymmetric partners can be also dened [22,24], and dierent families of PDM coherent states can be constructed [25]. Results of these generalizations can be found elsewhere [26]. Acknowledgment This work was completed with the support of Projects SIP20113705 and SIP20111061 of IPN-Mexico. The author thanks the Organizers of the XXX Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics for the invitation to participate in the Conference, and for the kind hospitality at the Bia lowie za Forest.

References
[1] G.H. Wannier, Phys. Rev. 52 (1937), 191 [2] G. Bastard, Wave mechanics apllied to semiconductor heterostructures Les Ulis Editions de Physique, Paris, 1998 [3] M. von Roos, Phys. Rev. B 35 (1983), 5493 [4] A.J. Peter, K. Navaneethakrishnan, Physica E 40 (2008), 2747 [5] J.F. Cari nena, A.M. Perelomov, M.F. Ra nada, M. Santander, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008), 085301

Factorization Method and the Position-dependent Mass Problem

237

[6] A. Ballesteros, A. Enciso, J.F. Herranz, O. Ragnisco, D. Riglioni, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 50 (2011), 2268 [7] A. Ballesteros, A. Enciso, J.F. Herranz, O. Ragnisco, D. Riglioni, Phys. Lett. A 375 (2011), 1431 [8] J.M. L evy-Leblond, Phys. Rev. A 52 (1995), 1845 [9] A.D. Alhaidari, Phys. Rev. A 66 (2002), 042116 [10] V. Milanovi c, Z. Ikoni c, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 (1999), 7001 [11] A.R. Plastino, A. Rigo, M. Casas, F. Gracias, A. Plastino, Phys. Rev. A 60 (1999), 4318 [12] B. G on ul, B. G on ul, D. Tutcu, O. Ozer, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 17 (2002), 2057 [13] B. Bagchi, T. Tanaka, Phys. Lett. A 372 (2008), 5390 [14] C. Quesne, Ann. Phys. 321 (2006), 1221 [15] B. Roy, P. Roy, Phys. Lett. A 340 (2005), 70 [16] S. Cruz y Cruz, J. Negro, L.M. Nieto, Phys. Lett. A 369 (2007), 400 [17] S. Cruz y Cruz, O. Rosas-Ortiz, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42 (2009), 185205 [18] O. Mustafa, S.H. Mazharimousabi, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 47 (2008), 446 [19] A. Ganguly, S Kuru, J. Negro, L.M. Nieto, Phys. Lett A 360 (2006), 228 [20] B. Mielnik, J. Math. Phys. 25 (1984), 33873389 [21] A.A. Andrianov, N.V. Borisov, M.V. Ioe, Theor. Math. Phys. 61 (1984), 1078 [22] B. Mielnik, O. Rosas-Ortiz, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 (2004), 10007 [23] S Kuru, J. Negro, Ann. Phys. 323 (2008), 413 [24] B. Mielnik, L.M. Nieto, O. Rosas-Ortiz, Phys. Lett. A 269 (2000), 70 [25] D.J. Fernndez, V. Hussin, O. Rosas-Ortiz, J. Phys. Math. Theor. 40 (2007), 6491 [26] S. Cruz y Cruz, O Rosas-Ortiz preprint Cinvestav-UPIITA 2011 Sara Cruz y Cruz SEPI-UPIITA, Instituto Polit ecnico Nacional Av. Instituto Polit ecnico Nacional 2580 La Laguna Ticom an, CP 07340 M exico D.F., Mexico e-mail: sgcruzc@ipn.mx