Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

206 submissions , 164 unreviewed
5,103 questions , 2,249 unanswered
5,355 answers , 22,800 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Adiabatic theorem for a 3 level system

+ 1 like - 0 dislike
401 views

Hello! If I have a 2 level system, with the energy splitting between the 2 levels $\omega_{12}$ and an external perturbation characterized by a frequency $\omega_P$, if $\omega_{12}>>\omega_P$ I can use the adiabatic approximation, and assume that the initial state of the system changes slowly in time while for $\omega_{12}<<\omega_P$ I can assume that the perturbation doesn't have any effect on the system (it averages out over the relevant time scales). I was wondering if I have a 3 level system with $E_1<E_2<E_3$ such that $\omega_{12}<<\omega_P<<\omega_{23}$. In general, the Hamiltonian of the system would look like this:

$$
\begin{pmatrix}
E_1 & f_{12}(t) & f_{13}(t)  \\
f_{12}^*(t) & E_2 & f_{23}(t) \\
f_{13}^*(t) & f_{23}^*(t) & E_3
\end{pmatrix}
$$

But using the intuition from the 2 level system case, can I ignore $f_{12}(t)$, as the system of these 2 levels (1 and 2) moves on time scales much slower than $\omega_P$, and assume that $f_{23}(t)$ and $f_{13}(t)$ move very slow and thus use the adiabatic approximation? In practice I would basically have:

$$
\begin{pmatrix}
E_1 & 0 & f_{13}(t)  \\
0 & E_2 & f_{23}(t) \\
f_{13}^*(t) & f_{23}^*(t) & E_3
\end{pmatrix}
$$

Or in this case I would need to fully solve the SE, without being able to make any approximations? Thank you

asked Dec 14, 2022 in Theoretical Physics by anonymous [ no revision ]

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOverf$\varnothing$ow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...