Squeezing of Relative and Center-of-Orbit Coordinates of a Charged Particle by Step-Wise Variations of a Uniform Magnetic Field with an Arbitrary Linear Vector Potential

Abstract

We consider a quantum charged particle moving in the xy plane under the action of a time-dependent magnetic field described by means of the linear vector potential A = H(t) [−y(1 + β), x(1 − β)] /2 with a fixed parameter β. The systems with different values of β are not equivalent for nonstationary magnetic fields due to different structures of induced electric fields, whose lines of force are ellipses for |β| 1. Using the approximation of the stepwise variation of the magnetic field H(t), we obtain explicit formulas describing the evolution of the principal squeezing in two pairs of noncommuting observables: the coordinates of the center of orbit and relative coordinates with respect to this center. Analysis of these formulas shows that no squeezing can arise for the circular gauge (β = 0). On the other hand, for any nonzero value of β, one can find the regimes of excitations resulting in some degree of squeezing in the both pairs. The maximum degree of squeezing can be obtained for the Landau gauge (|β| = 1) if the magnetic field is switched off and returns to the initial value after some time T, in the limit T → ∞.