Propagation of excitation in long 1D chains: Transition from regular quantum dynamics to stochastic dynamics

摘要

The quantum dynamics problem for a 1D chain consisting of 2N + 1 sites (N 1) with the interaction of nearest neighbors and an impurity site at the middle differing in energy and in coupling constant from the sites of the remaining chain is solved analytically. The initial excitation of the impurity is accompanied by the propagation of excitation over the chain sites and with the emergence of Loschmidt echo (partial restoration of the impurity site population) in the recurrence cycles with a period proportional to N. The echo consists of the main (most intense) component modulated by damped oscillations. The intensity of oscillations increases with increasing cycle number and matrix element C of the interaction of the impurity site n = 0 with sites n = ±1 (0 < C ≤ 1; for the remaining neighboring sites, the matrix element is equal to unity). Mixing of the components of echo from neighboring cycles induces a transition from the regular to stochastic evolution. In the regular evolution region, the wave packet propagates over the chain at a nearly constant group velocity, embracing a number of sites varying periodically with time. In the stochastic regime, the excitation is distributed over a number of sites close to 2N, with the populations varying irregularly with time. The model explains qualitatively the experimental data on ballistic propagation of the vibrational energy in linear chains of CH_2 fragments and predicts the possibility of a nondissipative energy transfer between reaction centers associated with such chains.