Regular and irregular semiclassical wavefunctions

Abstract

The form of the wavefunction psi for a semiclassical regular quantum state (associated with classical motion on an N-dimensional torus in the 2N-dimensional phase space) is very different from the form of psi for an irregular state (associated with stochastic classical motion on all or part of the (2N-1)-dimensional energy surface in phase space). For regular states the local average probability density Pi rises to large values on caustics at the boundaries of the classically allowed region in coordinate space, and psi exhibits strong anisotropic interference oscillations. For irregular states Pi falls to zero (or in two dimensions stays constant) on 'anticaustics' at the boundary of the classically allowed region, and psi appears to be a Gaussian random function exhibiting more moderate interference oscillations which for ergodic classical motion are statistically isotropic with the autocorrelation of psi given by a Bessel function.