Canonical Transformations in Crystals

Abstract

The space representations of linear canonical transformations were studied by Moshinsky and Quesne in 1972. For a few decades, the bilinear hamiltonian remained as the only exactly solvable representative for such problems. In this work we show that the Mello-Moshinsky equations can be solved exactly for a class of problems with discrete symmetry, leading to exact propagators for Wannier-Stark ladders in one and two dimensional crystals. We give a detailed study for a particle in a triangular lattice under the influence of a time-dependent electric field. A more general set of Mello-Moshinsky equations for arbitrary lattices is presented.