Quantum dynamics in potentials with fast spatial oscillations

Abstract

We consider quantum dynamics of systems with fast spatial modulation of the Hamiltonian. Employing the formalism of supersymmetric quantum mechanics and decoupling fast and slow spatial oscillations we demonstrate that the effective dynamics is governed by a Schr\"{o}dinger-like equation of motion and obtain the expression of the resulting effective Hamiltonian. In particular, we show that there exists an attractive effective potential even in the case when the oscillating potential averages to zero.