Towards a quantum time mirror for nonrelativistic wave packets

Abstract

We propose a method -- a quantum time mirror (QTM) -- for simulating a partial time-reversal of the free-space motion of a nonrelativistic quantum wave packet. The method is based on a short-time spatially-homogeneous perturbation to the wave packet dynamics, achieved by adding a nonlinear time-dependent term to the underlying Schrödinger equation. Numerical calculations, supporting our analytical considerations, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed QTM for generating a time-reversed echo image of initially localized matter-wave packets in one and two spatial dimensions. We also discuss possible experimental realizations of the proposed QTM.

10 pages, 3 figures. This article supersedes the second half of arXiv:1603.07503v1, which we decided to split into two separate papers; one being arXiv1603.07503v2 the other one being the one at hand (arXiv:1801.01818). v2: adjusted references [36] and [37] which are now displayed correctly