CHINESE JOURNAL OF PHYSICS VOL. 40, NO. 4 AUGUST 2002

Wave Packets of a Harmonic Oscillator with Various Degrees of Rigidity

Qiong-Gui Lin^*

Department of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
and
China Center of Advanced Science and Technology (World Laboratory),

P. O. Box 8730, Beijing 100080, China$^\dagger$
(Received December 18, 2001)

The time evolution of wave packets in a harmonic oscillator potential is studied. Some new results for the most general case are obtained. A natural number, called the ``degree of rigidity'', is introduced to describe qualitatively how much the shape of a wave packet changes with time. Two classes of wave packets with an arbitrarily given degree of rigidity are presented.

PACS. 03.65.Ta - Foundations of quantum mechanics; measurement theory.

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