Existence of Schrodinger Evolution with Absorbing Boundary Condition

Publication date 27 December 2019

Abstract: Consider a non-relativistic quantum particle with wave function inside a region

O m e g a s u b s e t m a t h b b R^{3}

, and suppose that detectors are placed along the boundary

p a r t i a l O m e g a

. The question how to compute the probability distribution of the time at which the detector surface registers the particle boils down to finding a reasonable mathematical definition of an ideal detecting surface; a particularly convincing definition, called the absorbing boundary rule, involves a time evolution for the particle's wave function

p s i

expressed by a Schrodinger equation in

O m e g a

together with an "absorbing" boundary condition on

p a r t i a l O m e g a

first considered by Werner in 1987, viz.,

p a r t i a l p s i / p a r t i a l n = i k a p p a p s i

with

k a p p a > 0

and

p a r t i a l / p a r t i a l n

the normal derivative. We provide here a discussion of the rigorous mathematical foundation of this rule. First, for the viability of the rule it plays a crucial role that these two equations together uniquely define the time evolution of

p s i

; we point out here how the Hille-Yosida theorem implies that the time evolution is well defined and given by a contraction semigroup. Second, we show that the collapse required for the

N

-particle version of the problem is well defined. Finally, we also prove analogous results for the Dirac equation.

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