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# Amplitude and phase representation of quantum invariants for the time dependent harmonic oscillator

## I Introduction

Exact invariants have been extensively used to solve the time dependent Shrödinger equation Ray . Various related invariants have been obtained for the quantum mechanical time dependent harmonic oscillator equation in one dimension (QM-TDHO). The Ermakov Lewis invariant and orthogonal functions invariant are two such constants of motion that have been used to solve the QM-TDHO problem. The Ermakov Lewis invariant is usually expressed in terms of coordinate and momentum operators although it has also been expressed in terms of raising and lowering operators that lead to number states for wave functions that are eigenstates of the invariant operator Lewis . However, the amplitude operator stemming from this procedure does not correspond to the amplitude of the oscillator in the classical limit.

The purpose of this communication is to translate the invariant formalism from the coordinate and momentum operators into an invariant in terms of amplitude and phase operators that reduce to the corresponding variables in the classical limit. In the second section, the solution to the QM-TDHO equation is stated using the square of the orthogonal functions invariant and the Ermakov invariant. In the following section, a second linear Hermitian invariant is introduced and the Ermakov-Lewis invariant is economically obtained from these two constants of motion. Two distinct annihilation and creation operators are presented in section four and their equations of motion are established. In section five, the quantum phase is defined using the Turski and Susskind and Glogower formalisms. The former definition is shown to yield an amplitude and phase representation that is consistent with the classical limit. In the last section, the Ermakov Lewis invariant is written in amplitude and phase variables. The energy conservation and photon number relations in nonlinear optical processes is shown as an example.

## II Evolution operators and invariants

Consider the time dependent Schrödinger equation with $`\mathrm{}=1`$

$$i\frac{|\psi (t)}{t}=\widehat{H}|\psi (t).$$
(1)
The solution to this equation for a time-independent Hamiltonian is formally given by $`|\psi (t)=\widehat{U}(t)|\psi (0)`$, where $`\widehat{U}(t)`$ is the evolution operator $`\widehat{U}(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left(i\widehat{H}t\right)`$. For the time dependent harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian

$$\widehat{H}(t)=\frac{1}{2}\left(\widehat{p}^2+\mathrm{\Omega }^2(t)\widehat{q}^2\right),$$
(2)
the solution may be written in terms of a propagator that involves a time independent operator together with an appropriate transformation of the wave function

$$|\psi (t)=\widehat{U}_I\widehat{T}^{}\widehat{T}(0)|\psi (0).$$
(3)
The propagator is given by

$$\widehat{U}_I=\mathrm{exp}\left(is_\alpha \widehat{I}_\alpha \right);s_\alpha _0^t\frac{dt^{}}{\alpha ^2},$$
(4)
where the function $`s_\alpha `$ is a time dependent c-number and the transformation is defined as

$$\widehat{T}=\mathrm{exp}\left(i\frac{\mathrm{ln}\alpha }{2}\frac{d\widehat{q}^2}{dt}\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(i\frac{d\mathrm{ln}\alpha }{dt}\frac{\widehat{q}^2}{2}\right)=\mathrm{exp}\left(i\frac{\mathrm{ln}\alpha }{2}(\widehat{q}\widehat{p}+\widehat{p}\widehat{q})\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(i\frac{\dot{\alpha }}{2\alpha }\widehat{q}^2\right).$$
(5)
The time independent operator in the propagator is an invariant that is not unique gmc . On the one hand, it may be proportional to the square of the orthogonal functions invariant operator

$$\widehat{I}_u=\frac{1}{2}\left(u\widehat{p}\dot{u}\widehat{q}\right)^2,$$
(6)
where the function $`\alpha u`$, replaced in the invariant as well as in the transformation expressions, obeys the TDHO equation

$$\ddot{u}+\mathrm{\Omega }^2(t)u=0.$$
(7)
On the other hand, the propagator may be written using the Ermakov Lewis invariant with $`\alpha \rho `$, where $`\rho `$ obeys the Ermakov equation

$$\ddot{\rho }+\mathrm{\Omega }^2(t)\rho =\rho ^3.$$
(8)
In either case, it is seen that the invariant in the time dependent case enters the propagator expression in an analogous fashion as the Hamiltonian does in the time independent case.

## III Classical and Quantum invariants

The classical orthogonal functions invariant is

$$G=q_1\dot{q}_2q_2\dot{q}_1,$$
(9)
where $`q_1`$ and $`q_2`$ are real linearly independent solutions of the TDHO equation fer1 . The quantum invariant arising from the mapping of $`q_2`$ and $`\dot{q}_2`$ into the coordinate and momentum operators is

$$\widehat{G}_1=u_1\widehat{p}\dot{u}_1\widehat{q}.$$
(10)
The obtention of a second invariant given a first invariant has been subject of several communications Goedert , Bouquet . It is worth remarking that the existence of a second invariant warrants complete integrability for a Hamiltonian Ermakov system Haas . Within the present formalism, it is straight forward to introduce a second invariant stemming from the mapping of $`q_1`$ and $`\dot{q}_1`$ into the coordinate and momentum operators

$$\widehat{G}_2=u_2\widehat{p}+\dot{u}_2\widehat{q}.$$
(11)
These two invariants obey the commutation relation $`[\widehat{G}_1,\widehat{G}_2]=iG`$, where $`G`$ is a constant. From the sum of their squares, we may construct the invariant operator

$$\widehat{I}=\frac{1}{2}\left(\widehat{G}_1^2+\widehat{G}_2^2\right),$$
(12)
which in terms of the position and momentum operators is

$`\widehat{G}_1^2+\widehat{G}_2^2`$ $`=(u_1\widehat{p}\dot{u}_1\widehat{q})^2+(u_2\widehat{p}+\dot{u}_2\widehat{q})^2`$
$`=(u_1^2+u_2^2)\widehat{p}^2+(\dot{u}_1^2+\dot{u}_2^2)\widehat{q}^2(u_1\dot{u}_1+u_2\dot{u}_2)(\widehat{p}\widehat{q}+\widehat{q}\widehat{p}).`$ (13)
We may rewrite this expression as a function of an amplitude function $`\rho =\sqrt{u_1^2+u_2^2}`$, by noticing that $`\dot{\rho }\rho =u_1\dot{u}_1+u_2\dot{u}_2`$ and that the orthogonal functions obey (9), so that

$$\frac{G^2}{\rho ^2}+\dot{\rho }^2=\frac{\left(u_1\dot{u}_2u_2\dot{u}_1\right)^2+\left(u_1\dot{u}_1+u_2\dot{u}_2\right)^2}{\rho ^2}=\left(\dot{u}_1^2+\dot{u}_2^2\right).$$
(14)
The operator in terms of $`\rho `$ is then

$$\widehat{I}=\frac{1}{2}\left[\left(\frac{G\widehat{q}}{\rho }\right)^2+(\rho \widehat{p}\dot{\rho }\widehat{q})^2\right]=\widehat{I}_\rho ,$$
(15)
but this is precisely the Ermakov Lewis invariant where the real constant $`G`$ is usually normalized to unity in general different from one Eliezer . The above procedure is a simple derivation of the quantum Ermakov Lewis invariant, which has otherwise been obtained using rather more complex mathematical methods Ray and Reid . The non Hermitian linear invariant $`\widehat{I}_c`$ introduced by Malkin et al. written in terms of the orthogonal functions invariants is $`\widehat{I}_c=\widehat{G}_1i\widehat{G}_2`$.

In the classical case, the amplitude and phase representation of the invariant is straight forward. If the coordinate variable $`u`$ is expressed in polar coordinates

$$u=\rho e^{is_\rho }+\sigma \rho e^{is_\rho },$$
(16)
where $`\sigma `$ is a constant, the classical orthogonal functions invariant (9) may be expressed in terms of amplitude and phase variables as

$$G/\left(1\sigma ^2\right)=\rho ^2\dot{s}_\rho .$$
(17)
The constant $`G/\left(1\sigma ^2\right)`$ may be normalized to one and the derivative of the phase written as the frequency $`\omega \left(t\right)\dot{s}_\rho `$; the squared amplitude times the frequency then obey the relationship

$$\rho ^2\omega \left(t\right)=1.$$
(18)
The energy of a time independent oscillator is proportional to the squares of the momentum and coordinate variables $`p^2+\omega _0^2q^2`$, which in terms of the amplitude and phase variables is $`\rho _0^2\omega _0^2`$. If this relationship is considered to hold in the time dependent case, the invariant is then proportional to the ratio of the energy over the frequency $`G/\left(1\sigma ^2\right)\left(t\right)/\omega \left(t\right)`$ thus yielding the well known adiabatic invariant fer2 . Therefore, the classical orthogonal functions invariant is proportional to the eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian function of the system.

Nonetheless, the quantum versions of this invariant produces a linear form in the coordinate and momentum operators as seen in Eqs. (10) and (11). It therefore comes to no surprise that the argument of the propagator is proportional to the square of the orthogonal functions quantum invariant (6). On the other hand, the classical Ermakov Lewis invariant in the amplitude and phase representation follows from the substitution $`\widehat{q}\rho \mathrm{cos}s_\rho `$, $`\widehat{p}d\widehat{q}/dt`$ Eliezer :

$$I=\frac{1}{2}\rho ^4\dot{s}_\rho ^2$$
(19)
that implies a quadratic dependence on the energy of the oscillator. Therefore, a quantum invariant with a quadratic dependence on the coordinate and momentum variables should be in correspondence with the classical orthogonal functions invariant.

## IV Creation and annihilation operators

An operator that can be written as the sum of two squares may be expressed in terms of two adjoint complex quantities. To wit, given an operator $`\widehat{\beta }`$ that can be expressed as

$$\widehat{\beta }=\widehat{b}_1^2+\widehat{b}_2^2,$$
(20)
provided $`[\widehat{b}_1,\widehat{b}_2]=c`$, with $`c`$ a $`c`$-number, there exist annihilation and creation operators $`\widehat{b}=\widehat{b}_1+i\widehat{b}_2`$, $`\widehat{b}^{}=\widehat{b}_1i\widehat{b}_2`$ so that the operator may be written as $`\widehat{\beta }=\widehat{b}^{}\widehat{b}i[\widehat{b}_1,\widehat{b}_2]`$. For instance, annihilation and creation operators for the Hamiltonian (2) may be written as Janszky

$$\widehat{B}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^{1/2}(t)\widehat{q}+i\widehat{p}/\mathrm{\Omega }^{1/2}(t)\right),\widehat{B}^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^{1/2}(t)\widehat{q}i\widehat{p}/\mathrm{\Omega }^{1/2}(t)\right).$$
(21)
However, the way in which the $`\widehat{\beta }`$ operator is written as the sum of two squares need not be unique. In fact, for the invariant operator defined in the previous section, expressions (12) and (15) are two such possibilities. The former leads to annihilation and creation operators of the form

$$\widehat{A}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\widehat{G}_1i\widehat{G}_2\right),\widehat{A}^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\widehat{G}_1+i\widehat{G}_2\right),$$
(22)
where the identification $`\widehat{b}_1\widehat{G}_1`$ and $`\widehat{b}_2\widehat{G}_2`$ has been made. These operators may also be obtained from the non Hermitian linear invariant which arise from the complex solution of the TDHO equation Dodonov , Hacyan . The sign in the imaginary part of the above expressions is introduced in order to have consistency with the cited results. These annihilation and creation operators are also invariant since they are composed by invariant operators.

On the other hand, the operators arising from (15) yield

$$\widehat{a}\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\frac{\widehat{q}}{\rho }+i(\rho \widehat{p}\dot{\rho }\widehat{q})\right),\widehat{a}^{}\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\frac{\widehat{q}}{\rho }i(\rho \widehat{p}\dot{\rho }\widehat{q})\right).$$
(23)
These time dependent annihilation and creation operators were originally introduced by Lewis Lewis . The Ermakov invariant in terms of these operators is

$$\widehat{I}=\widehat{a}^{}\left(t\right)\widehat{a}\left(t\right)+\frac{1}{2}=\widehat{A}^{}\widehat{A}+\frac{1}{2}.$$
(24)
In order to obtain the transformation between the distinct annihilation and creation operators, evaluate

$$e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}\widehat{A}e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}=\widehat{A}e^{is_\rho }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\widehat{G}_1i\widehat{G}_2\right)(u_2+iu_1)$$
(25)
where $`u_1=\rho \mathrm{sin}s_\rho `$, $`u_2=\rho \mathrm{cos}s_\rho `$. The relationships between the orthogonal functions and their trigonometric representation is not unique. This choice represents the function $`u_1`$ leading $`u_2`$ by $`\frac{\pi }{2}`$ as $`s_\rho `$ increases fer2 . Replacing the definitions of the invariants yields

$$\widehat{A}e^{is_\rho }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left[\left(\frac{u_1\dot{u}_2\dot{u}_1u_2}{\rho }\right)\widehat{q}+i\left(\frac{u_1^2+u_2^2}{\rho }\right)\widehat{p}i\left(\frac{u_1\dot{u}_1+u_2\dot{u}_2}{\rho }\right)\widehat{q}\right],$$
(26)
which simplifies to

$$\widehat{A}e^{is_\rho }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\frac{G\widehat{q}}{\rho }+i(\rho \widehat{p}\dot{\rho }\widehat{q})\right)=\widehat{a}.$$
(27)
Therefore the time dependent annihilation (creation) operators may be written as the product of the time independent annihilation (creation) operators times a phase that only involves a c-number function. This expression may be written as a unitary transformation of a phase shift

$$\widehat{a}=\mathrm{exp}\left(is_\rho \widehat{I}\right)\widehat{A}\mathrm{exp}\left(is_\rho \widehat{I}\right)$$
(28)
The equation of motion of this operator is then

$$\dot{\widehat{a}}=i\omega (t)[\widehat{I},\widehat{a}].$$
(29)
It is thus seen that the operator $`\omega (t)\widehat{I}`$ in the QM-TDHO again plays the role that the Hamiltonian does in a time independent harmonic oscillator case. This assertion is consistent with the transformation that relates the invariant and the time dependent Hamiltonian gmc

$$\omega (t)\widehat{I}=\widehat{H}(t)i\frac{\widehat{T}^{}}{t}\widehat{T}.$$
(30)
## V Phase operators for time dependent oscillator

As it is well known, different operators can be used to define the phase in quantum optics Lynch . The invariant formalism will be applied here to the phase operator given by Turski and the exponential phase operators of Susskind and Glogower. In particular, the former operator will allow an appropriate translation of the classical amplitude-phase invariant into the quantum one.

### V.1 Turski phase operator

By using the annihilation operator (23) the displacement operator can be written as $`\widehat{D}(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha \widehat{a}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha ^{}\widehat{a})`$, $`\alpha =r\mathrm{exp}(i\theta )`$. The vacuum state may then be displaced to obtain a coherent state $`|\alpha =\widehat{D}(\alpha )|0`$ and the phase operator introduced by Turski Turski  is then generalized to the time dependent case

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}=\theta |\alpha \alpha |d^2\alpha .$$
(31)
This operator obeys the commutation relation $`[\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }},\widehat{I}]=i`$. In order to evaluate the time evolution of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, this operator can be written in terms of the invariant annihilation and creation operators using (28)

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}=e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}\left(\theta \widehat{D}_A(\alpha )e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}|00|e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}\widehat{D}_A^{}(\alpha )d^2\alpha \right)e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}},$$
(32)
where $`\widehat{D}_A(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha \widehat{A}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha ^{}\widehat{A})`$. The invariant acting over the vacuum state is $`\widehat{I}|0=\frac{1}{2}|0`$ and the phase is then

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}=e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}}\left(\theta \widehat{D}_A(\alpha )|00|\widehat{D}_A^{}(\alpha )d^2\alpha \right)e^{is_\rho \widehat{I}},$$
(33)
the time derivative of this expression yields the equation of motion for $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$:

$$\dot{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}}=i\omega (t)[\widehat{I},\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}]=\omega (t).$$
(34)
The operator $`\omega (t)\widehat{I}`$ once again takes the role of the Hamiltonian since the Turski operator commutes with $`\widehat{H}`$ in the time independent case.

### V.2 Susskind-Glogower operators

The generalization of the phase to the time dependent case is also applicable using other formalisms. Consider, for example, the Susskind-Glogower operators suss  given by (see for instance vogel )

$$\widehat{V}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\widehat{a}\widehat{a}^{}}}\widehat{a}=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|nn+1|,\widehat{V}^{}=\widehat{a}^{}\frac{1}{\sqrt{\widehat{a}\widehat{a}^{}}}=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|n+1n|,$$
(35)
where $`|n`$ is a number state, eigenstate of the invariant $`\widehat{I}`$. The unitary transformation $`\widehat{V}\widehat{I}\widehat{V}^{}=\widehat{I}+1,`$works as a shifter in the same way as $`\widehat{q}`$ and $`\widehat{p}`$ do: $`\mathrm{exp}(i\alpha \widehat{p})\widehat{q}\mathrm{exp}(i\alpha \widehat{p})=\widehat{q}+\alpha `$. The sine and cosine operators for the Susskind-Glogower operators

$$\widehat{C}=\frac{\widehat{V}+V^{}}{2},\widehat{S}=\frac{\widehat{V}V^{}}{2i},$$
(36)
give the commutation relations $`[\widehat{I},\widehat{C}]=i\widehat{S},[\widehat{I},\widehat{S}]=i\widehat{C}`$. Following the same treatment as above, i.e. expressing operators that depend on $`\widehat{a}`$ and $`\widehat{a}^{}`$ in terms of the invariants $`\widehat{A}`$, $`\widehat{A}^{}`$ and $`\widehat{I}`$, the equations of motion for the sine and cosine operators are

$$\dot{\widehat{C}}=i\omega (t)[\widehat{I},\widehat{C}]=\omega (t)\widehat{S},\dot{\widehat{S}}=i\omega (t)[\widehat{I},\widehat{S}]=\omega (t)\widehat{C}.$$
(37)
## VI Amplitude and phase representation of invariant

The coordinate operator from (23) is

$$\widehat{q}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\omega (t)}}(\widehat{a}+\widehat{a}^{}),$$
(38)
and following Dirac dirac  the creation and annihilation operators may be written as

$$\widehat{a}=\sqrt{\widehat{I}}e^{i\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}},\widehat{a}^{}=e^{i\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}}\sqrt{\widehat{I}}.$$
(39)
The coordinate operator (38) in the form of amplitude and phase variables is then

$$\widehat{q}=\sqrt{\frac{\widehat{I}}{2\omega (t)}}e^{i\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}}+e^{i\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}}\sqrt{\frac{\widehat{I}}{2\omega (t)}},$$
(40)
where the amplitude $`\rho `$ and phase $`s_\rho `$ are identified as

$$\rho \sqrt{\frac{\widehat{I}}{\omega (t)}},s_\rho \widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}.$$
(41)
The orthogonal functions invariant with the aid of (34) is given in amplitude and phase operators as

$$\widehat{I}=\frac{\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{a}+\frac{1}{2}}{\omega (t)}\dot{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}},$$
(42)
which has the same structure of the orthogonal functions classical invariant written in amplitude and phase variables (17). The number operator is then identified with

$$\widehat{n}=\frac{\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{a}}{\omega (t)}.$$
(43)
This identification may seem dimensionally awkward but it should be remembered that the invariant initial value was normalized to one (18). The explicit introduction of the normalization factor $`\rho _0^2\omega _0`$ makes of course a dimensionless photon number for an adimensional amplitude $`\rho _0`$. Since $`\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{a}`$ is invariant from (24), if the frequency is constant the number of excitations is then also constant. However, in the time dependent case, the number of excitations is inversely proportional to the time dependent frequency in correspondence with the intensity dependence obtained in the classical limit.

The energy of the excitation at a given time $`t_s`$ is given by $`=\widehat{n}\omega \left(t_s\right)=`$ $`\widehat{n}\dot{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}}`$ (with $`\mathrm{}=1`$) and thus the quantum invariant represents the energy conservation of the system. Consider, as an example of this formalism, the number of excitations to represent the photon number. Allow for a non degenerate nonlinear process where the field experiences second harmonic generation (SHG). Let the photon number at time $`t_1`$ be $`\widehat{n}_1`$ when the frequency mode is $`\omega _1`$ and allow it to evolve at a time $`t_2`$ to the mode $`\omega _2=2\omega _1`$. The number of photons in the mode $`\omega _2`$ is then

$$\widehat{n}_2=\widehat{n}_1\frac{\omega _1}{\omega _2}=\frac{1}{2}\widehat{n}_1.$$
(44)
This scheme corresponds to a Lagrangian hydrodynamic framework where a given volume is being followed along its propagating path. On the other hand, an Eulerian framework in a fixed point in space under steady state conditions corresponds to the eigenfunctions of the invariant operator (24). The photon number is then $`\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{a}`$ and is constant for each participating mode. If the invariant is the same for all modes, the energy of the modes are related by

$$\frac{_1}{\omega _1}=\frac{_2}{\omega _2}.$$
(45)
In order to preserve the total energy of the system two degenerate modes with energy $`_1`$ are of course required in the SHG case. This reasoning may be extended to an arbitrary number of modes leading to other nonlinear processes such as parametric amplification or frequency difference. These type of equations are known in nonlinear optics as Manley-Rowe relations Manley . They are usually derived in semiclassical theory through a rather cumbersome procedure that relies on the particular nonlinearity being described together with the symmetries that they involve (Kleinmann’s condition) when no absorption is present Shen . These semiclassical results are often interpreted in terms of photon numbers participating in each mode Shen , Yariv . This interpretation is naturally embodied in the present quantum treatment.

## VII Conclusions

An economical derivation of the quantum Ermakov Lewis invariant has been presented. This invariant may be used in an equivalent fashion as the Hamiltonian is used in the time independent case. Namely, to obtain evolution operators, to cast the equations of motion of different operators in commutative expressions, and to produce a phase shift with its exponential form. The invariant and time dependent definitions for annihilation and creation operators have been used to generalize the quantum phase to the time dependent case. Following the classical form of the orthogonal functions invariant, the quantum Ermakov Lewis invariant has been expressed in amplitude and phase variables in accordance with the correspondence principle. A quantum derivation of the Manley-Rowe relations has been presented as a particular application of this representation.