ELLIPTIC SQUEEZED STATES AND RYDBERG WAVE-PACKETS

We present a theoretical construction for closest-to-classical wave pa ckets localized in both angular and radial coordinates and moving on a keplerian orbit. The method produces a family of elliptical squeezed states for the planar Coulomb problem that minimize appropriate uncert ainty relations in radial and angular coordinates. The time evolution of these states is studied for orbits with-different semimajor axes an d eccentricities. The elliptical squeezed states may be useful for a d escription of the motion of Rydberg wave packets excited by short-puls ed lasers in the presence of external fields, which experiments are at tempting to produce. We outline an extension of the method to include certain effects of quantum defects appearing in the alkali-metal atoms used in experiments.