2025/11/07 by Zumer, Benoît, Daem, Florent, Matzkin, Alexandre
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.05200
openalex publication_date 2025/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/11/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate wavepacket dynamics for a relativistic particle in a box evolving according to the relativistic Schrödinger (also known as the Salpeter) equation. We derive the solutions for an infinite well -- which contrary to the standard relativistic wave equations (such as the Klein-Gordon or Dirac equations) -- are well defined, and use these solutions to construct wavepackets. We obtain expressions for the wavepacket revival times and explore the corresponding quantum carpets (the space-time probability density plots) for different dynamical regimes. We further analyze level spacing statistics as the dynamics goes from the non-relativistic regime to the ultra-relativistic limit.