Analogue simulation of quantum mechanical systems

Abstract

An extension of the technique of analogue simulation to the treatment of quantum mechanical systems, based on an analogue variant of the method of stochastic quantization, is reported. The analogue stochastic quantization (ASQ) technique is introduced by application to the quantum harmonic oscillator, a particularly simple system for which all the answers are already known. ASQ measurements of the lowest eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the latter system are presented and compared with theoretical predictions. The future potential of the ASQ technique in relation to some more complicated quantum systems of topical interest is discussed.