Stabilization not for certain and the usefulness of bounds

Abstract

Stabilization is still a somewhat controversial issue concerning its very existence and also the precise conditions for its occurrence. The key quantity to settle these questions is the ionization probability, for which hitherto no computational method exists which is entirely agreed upon. It is therefore very useful to provide various consistency criteria which have to be satisfied by this quantity, whose discussion is the main objective of this contribution. We show how the scaling behaviour of the space leads to a symmetry in the ionization probability, which can be exploited in the mentioned sense. Furthermore, we discuss how upper and lower bounds may be used for the same purpose. Rather than concentrating on particular analytical expressions we obtained elsewhere for these bounds, we focus in our discussion on the general principles of this method. We illustrate the precise working of this procedure, its advantages, shortcomings and range of applicability. We show that besides constraining possible values for the ionization probability these bounds, like the scaling behaviour, also lead to definite statements concerning the physical outcome. The pulse shape properties which have to be satitisfied for the existence of asymptotical stabilization is the vanishing of the total classical momentum transfer and the total classical displacement and not smoothly switched on and off pulses. Alternatively we support our results by general considerations in the Gordon-Volkov perturbation theory and explicit studies of various pulse shapes and potentials including in particular the Coulomb- and the delta potential.