Notions of adiabatic drift in the quantized Harper model
Phys. Rev. A 112, 042226 – Published 28 October, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gfvf-7xwq
Abstract
We study a quantized, discrete, and drifting version of the Harper Hamiltonian, also called the finite almost Mathieu operator, which resembles the pendulum Hamiltonian but, in phase space, is confined to a torus. Spacing between pairs of eigenvalues of the operator spans many orders of magnitude, with nearly degenerate pairs of states at energies that are associated with circulating orbits in the associated classical system. When parameters of the system slowly vary, both adiabatic and diabatic transitions can take place at drift rates that span many orders of magnitude. Only under an extremely negligible drift rate would all transitions into superposition states be suppressed. The wide range of energy-level spacings could be a common property of quantum systems with nonlocal potentials that are related to resonant classical dynamical systems. Notions for adiabatic drift are discussed for quantum systems that are associated with classical ones with a divided phase space.
