The Step-Harmonic Potential

We analyze the behavior of a quantum system described by a one-dimensional asymmetric potential consisting of a step plus a harmonic barrier. We solve the eigenvalue equation by the integral representation method, which allows us to classify the independent solutions as equivalence classes of homotopic paths in the complex plane. We then consider the propagation of a wave packet reflected by the harmonic barrier and obtain an expression for the interaction time as a function of the peak energy. For high energies we recover the classical half-period limit.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Preconditioning harmonic unsteady potential flow calculations

This paper considers finite element discretisations of the Helmholtz equation and its generalisation arising from harmonic acoustics perturbations to a non-uniform steady potential flow. A novel elliptic, positive definite preconditioner, with a multigrid implementation, is used to accelerate the iterative convergence of Krylov subspace solvers. Both theory and numerical results show that for a model 1D Helmholtz test problem the preconditioner clusters the discrete system's eigenvalues and lowers its condition number to a level independent of grid resolution. For the 2D Helmholtz equation, grid independent convergence is achieved using a QMR Krylov solver, significantly outperforming the popular SSOR preconditioner. Impressive results are also presented on more complex domains, including an axisymmetric aircraft engine inlet with non-stagnant mean flow and modal boundary conditions

Efimov Trimers in a Harmonic Potential

We study the Efimov effect in a harmonic oscillator in the hyperspherical formulation, and show how a reduced model allows for a description that is a generalization of the Efimov effect in free space and leads to results that are easily interpreted. Efimov physics may be observed by varying the value of the scattering length, since in the regime where the trimers have a mixed harmonic oscillator and Efimov character, the inelastic properties of these states are still manageable. The model also allows for the study of non-universal Efimov trimers by including the effective range scattering parameter. While we find that in a certain regime the effective range parameter can take over the role of the three-body parameter, interestingly, we obtain a numerical relationship between these two parameters different from what was found in other models.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Nonrelativistic conformal field theories

We study representations of the Schr\"odinger algebra in terms of operators in nonrelativistic conformal field theories. We prove a correspondence between primary operators and eigenstates of few-body systems in a harmonic potential. Using the correspondence we compute analytically the energy of fermions at unitarity in a harmonic potential near two and four spatial dimensions. We also compute the energy of anyons in a harmonic potential near the bosonic and fermionic limits.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; added a comment on the convergence of epsilon expansion

Flows and Decompositions of Games: Harmonic and Potential Games

In this paper we introduce a novel flow representation for finite games in strategic form. This representation allows us to develop a canonical direct sum decomposition of an arbitrary game into three components, which we refer to as the potential, harmonic and nonstrategic components. We analyze natural classes of games that are induced by this decomposition, and in particular, focus on games with no harmonic component and games with no potential component. We show that the first class corresponds to the well-known potential games. We refer to the second class of games as harmonic games, and study the structural and equilibrium properties of this new class of games. Intuitively, the potential component of a game captures interactions that can equivalently be represented as a common interest game, while the harmonic part represents the conflicts between the interests of the players. We make this intuition precise, by studying the properties of these two classes, and show that indeed they have quite distinct and remarkable characteristics. For instance, while finite potential games always have pure Nash equilibria, harmonic games generically never do. Moreover, we show that the nonstrategic component does not affect the equilibria of a game, but plays a fundamental role in their efficiency properties, thus decoupling the location of equilibria and their payoff-related properties. Exploiting the properties of the decomposition framework, we obtain explicit expressions for the projections of games onto the subspaces of potential and harmonic games. This enables an extension of the properties of potential and harmonic games to "nearby" games. We exemplify this point by showing that the set of approximate equilibria of an arbitrary game can be characterized through the equilibria of its projection onto the set of potential games

Transitionless quantum drivings for the harmonic oscillator

Two methods to change a quantum harmonic oscillator frequency without transitions in a finite time are described and compared. The first method, a transitionless-tracking algorithm, makes use of a generalized harmonic oscillator and a non-local potential. The second method, based on engineering an invariant of motion, only modifies the harmonic frequency in time, keeping the potential local at all times.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. Submitted for publicatio