Time-independent approximations for time-dependent optical potentials

Abstract

We explore the possibility of modifying the Lewis-Riesenfeld method of invariants developed originally to find exact solutions for time-dependent quantum mechanical systems for the situation in which an exact invariant can be constructed, but the subsequently resulting time-independent eigenvalue system is not solvable exactly. We propose to carry out this step in an approximate fashion, such as employing standard time-independent perturbation theory or the WKB approximation, and subsequently feeding the resulting approximated expressions back into the time-dependent scheme. We illustrate the quality of this approach by contrasting an exactly solvable solution to one obtained with a perturbatively carried out second step for two types of explicitly time-dependent optical potentials.