Entropy-based view of the strong field ionization process

Abstract

We apply information theoretic entropies of coordinate and velocity distributions in quantum mechanics for the description of the strong field ionization process. The approach is based on the properties of the entropies used in the information theory, viz., their ability to gauge the ”distance” between the probability distributions and thus to be sensitive to the distributions variations. Study of the entropies as functions of time allows thus to visualize conveniently evolution of the wave-function of the system undergoing strong field ionization, and to pin down, in particular, the times when the wave-function begins to change appreciably.