Wave packet propagation and the materialization of classical trajectories

Abstract

Unbound wave packets propagating to macroscopic space and time coordinates become proportional to their (Fourier transform) momentum distribution at earlier times whereby the asymptotic coordinates and the initial momenta are connected everywhere by appropriate classical trajectories. This asymptotic imaging theorem is relevant to every quantum reaction involving macroscopic extraction and detection of fragments emerging from a microscopic volume. It justifies the usual assumption of classical particle motion used in the design of particle detectors. We illustrate this quantum to semiclassical transition with the example of the free propagation of a wave packet in one dimension, a standard problem treated in introductory lectures on quantum mechanics. We indicate generalizations appropriate for more advanced discussions.