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Published on: December 4, 2017
Quantumlike dynamics of classical particles in ponderomotive potentials
1Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
Abstract:
The average dynamics of a classical particle under the action of a high-frequency radiation resembles quantum particle motion in a conservative field with an effective de Broglie wavelength lambda equal to the particle average displacement on the oscillation period. In a quasiclassical field, with a spatial scale large compared to lambda, the guiding-center motion is adiabatic. Otherwise, a particle exhibits quantized eigenstates in ponderomotive potential wells, tunnels through "classically forbidden" regions, and experiences stochastic reflection from attractive potentials.
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