Time and Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 2646

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mathematics and Natural Science, University of Kassel, 34132 Kassel, Germany
Interests: attosecond physics; tunneling time; time-energy uncertainty relation (teur); time and time-operator in quantum mechanics (qm)

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues, 

Time is one of the basic entities of the space-time world; it was and is still the subject of philosophical and scientific human thinking. Symmetry is a fundamental concept in physics and has a deep relation to the conservation laws in physics according to the first Noether theorem. Quantum mechanics offers a particularly favorable framework for the application of symmetry principles.

The Babylonians and Maya had elaborate, and fairly accurate, measurements of time and the calendar. In classical mechanics, time is thought to be absolute, whereas in relativistic theory, space and time are equivalent. In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle is applied to time and energy as conjugate quantities or dynamical variables.

This Special Issue of Symmetry focuses on time and symmetry in quantum mechanics. Time and symmetry received a large boost in interest as a result of the advent of modern laser technology, which makes measurements in the femtosecond, attosecond and zeptosecond scale possible, revealing new scientific insights and new application of laser–matter interaction for atoms, molecules, charge transport, as well as nanoelectronics, biomolecules, nanostructures and nanomaterials. The area of study includes electronic and molecular dynamics, real-time dynamics of the fundamental processes of light–matter interaction and atomic collision and, finally, chiral molecules and quantum control.

Manuscripts submitted to this Special Issue may include subjects from various disciplines, in non-relativistic and relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum optics, ultrafast laser–matter interaction, quantum electrodynamics and quantum thermodynamics. We encourage authors to submit manuscripts that fall within the scope of the Special Issue, time and symmetry in quantum mechanics, and match at least one of the following keywords:

- Symmetry in ultrafast processes in physics and chemistry.

- Time measurement in quantum systems.

- Time operator and dynamical time.

- Evolution time, tunneling time, ionization and unitary operations.

- Time-reversal symmetry and symmetry breaking.

- Dynamical symmetry, physical properties and symmetry properties.

- Observable symmetry and dynamical evolution.

- Time asymmetry in quantum mechanics.

- Quantum control and electronic dynamics in quantum system.

- Chiral molecules, biological molecules, charge transfer and nanoelectronics.

Dr. Ossama Kullie
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 7339 KiB  
Article
Symmetries and Selection Rules of the Spectra of Photoelectrons and High-Order Harmonics Generated by Field-Driven Atoms and Molecules
by Dino Habibović, Wilhelm Becker and Dejan B. Milošević
Symmetry 2021, 13(9), 1566; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym13091566 - 25 Aug 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2030
Abstract
Using the strong-field approximation we systematically investigate the selection rules for high-order harmonic generation and the symmetry properties of the angle-resolved photoelectron spectra for various atomic and molecular targets exposed to one-component and two-component laser fields. These include bicircular fields and orthogonally polarized [...] Read more.
Using the strong-field approximation we systematically investigate the selection rules for high-order harmonic generation and the symmetry properties of the angle-resolved photoelectron spectra for various atomic and molecular targets exposed to one-component and two-component laser fields. These include bicircular fields and orthogonally polarized two-color fields. The selection rules are derived directly from the dynamical symmetries of the driving field. Alternatively, we demonstrate that they can be obtained using the conservation of the projection of the total angular momentum on the quantization axis. We discuss how the harmonic spectra of atomic targets depend on the type of the ground state or, for molecular targets, on the pertinent molecular orbital. In addition, we briefly discuss some properties of the high-order harmonic spectra generated by a few-cycle laser field. The symmetry properties of the angle-resolved photoelectron momentum distribution are also determined by the dynamical symmetry of the driving field. We consider the first two terms in a Born series expansion of the T matrix, which describe the direct and the rescattered electrons. Dynamical symmetries involving time translation generate rotational symmetries obeyed by both terms. However, those that involve time reversal generate reflection symmetries that are only observed by the direct electrons. Finally, we explain how the symmetry properties, imposed by the dynamical symmetry of the driving field, are altered for molecular targets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Time and Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics)
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