Bound states of quasiparticles with quartic dispersion in an external potential: WKB approach

Abstract

The Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin semiclassical method is formulated for quasiparticles with quartic-in-momentum dispersion which presents the simplest case of a soft energy-momentum dispersion. It is shown that matching wave functions in the classically forbidden and allowed regions requires the consideration of higher-order Airy-type functions. The asymptotics of these functions are found by using the method of steepest descents and contain additional exponentially suppressed contributions known as hyperasymptotics. These hyperasymptotics are crucially important for the correct matching of wave functions in vicinity of turning points for higher-order differential equations. A quantization condition for bound state energies is obtained, which generalizes the standard Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization condition for particles with quadratic energy-momentum dispersion and contains non-perturbative in ℏ correction. This non-perturbative correction, usually associated with tunneling effects or the presence of complex turning points, occurs even for the harmonic potential with quartic dispersion where complex turning points and tunneling are absent. The quantization condition is used to find bound state energies in the case of quadratic and quartic potentials.