2007/10/31 by Ángel S. Sanz, A. S. Sanz, S. Miret‐Artés +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2008.04.103
published as Chem. Phys. Lett. 458, 239 (2008) · 12 pages, 3 figures
openalex publication_date 2008/04/30 · arxiv created 2008/06/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Interference dynamics is analyzed in the light of the complex quantum Hamilton-Jacobi formalism, using as a working model the collision of two Gaussian wave packets. Though simple, this model nicely shows that interference in quantum scattering processes gives rise to rich dynamics and trajectory topologies in the complex plane, both ruled by two types of singularities: caustics and vortices, where the former are associated with the regime of free wave-packet propagation, and the latter with the collision (interference) process. Furthermore, an unambiguous picture connecting the complex and real frameworks is also provided and discussed.