Weighted Phase-Space Paths for Exact Wigner Dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Limkumnerd, Surachate, Phanthaphanitkul, Panat
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Limkumnerd, Surachate
Phanthaphanitkul, Panat
author_facet Limkumnerd, Surachate
Phanthaphanitkul, Panat
contents A quantum state can be written in phase space, but the resulting object is not generally the probability density of a positive stochastic process on ordinary phase space. We spell this out for Wigner dynamics. If a positive phase-space process is required only to reproduce the Born density after integrating over momentum, the requirement fixes only an integrated current; the local drift and diffusion remain underdetermined. If one instead requires all Weyl-ordered expectation values, the phase-space object is fixed to be the Wigner function. For non-quadratic potentials the Wigner--Moyal generator contains higher-order, signed momentum-transfer terms, so it is not the Fokker--Planck generator of a positive Brownian diffusion. The exact Wigner function must therefore be reconstructed, in a stochastic representation, as a weighted empirical measure \[ \FW(\z,t)=\E_{\Pp}[W_tδ(\z-\z_t)], \qquad \z=(q,p), \] rather than the unweighted density of sampled carrier trajectories. With classical Hamiltonian flow as the carrier, all nonclassical correction beyond classical transport sits in the Moyal residual and can be represented by signed weights or branching events. The same split defines a residual diagnostic that vanishes for quadratic Hamiltonians and measures what classical carrier transport misses in anharmonic dynamics. The formulation also gives a forward--reverse relation for signed Wigner path measures. The ratio of forward and reversed contributions separates into a positive magnitude factor and a sign factor. This sign records the parity of the Wigner interference contribution; it is not a thermodynamic entropy production.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_05764
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Weighted Phase-Space Paths for Exact Wigner Dynamics
Limkumnerd, Surachate
Phanthaphanitkul, Panat
Quantum Physics
Mathematical Physics
A quantum state can be written in phase space, but the resulting object is not generally the probability density of a positive stochastic process on ordinary phase space. We spell this out for Wigner dynamics. If a positive phase-space process is required only to reproduce the Born density after integrating over momentum, the requirement fixes only an integrated current; the local drift and diffusion remain underdetermined. If one instead requires all Weyl-ordered expectation values, the phase-space object is fixed to be the Wigner function. For non-quadratic potentials the Wigner--Moyal generator contains higher-order, signed momentum-transfer terms, so it is not the Fokker--Planck generator of a positive Brownian diffusion. The exact Wigner function must therefore be reconstructed, in a stochastic representation, as a weighted empirical measure \[ \FW(\z,t)=\E_{\Pp}[W_tδ(\z-\z_t)], \qquad \z=(q,p), \] rather than the unweighted density of sampled carrier trajectories. With classical Hamiltonian flow as the carrier, all nonclassical correction beyond classical transport sits in the Moyal residual and can be represented by signed weights or branching events. The same split defines a residual diagnostic that vanishes for quadratic Hamiltonians and measures what classical carrier transport misses in anharmonic dynamics. The formulation also gives a forward--reverse relation for signed Wigner path measures. The ratio of forward and reversed contributions separates into a positive magnitude factor and a sign factor. This sign records the parity of the Wigner interference contribution; it is not a thermodynamic entropy production.
title Weighted Phase-Space Paths for Exact Wigner Dynamics
topic Quantum Physics
Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.05764