  We outline an analytical framework for the treatment of radial Rydberg wave
packets produced by short laser pulses in the absence of external electric and
magnetic fields. Wave packets of this type are localized in the radial
coordinates and have p-state angular distributions. We argue that they can be
described by a particular analytical class of squeezed states, called radial
squeezed states. For hydrogenic Rydberg atoms, we discuss the time evolution of
the corresponding hydrogenic radial squeezed states. They are found to undergo
decoherence and collapse, followed by fractional and full revivals. We also
present their uncertainty product and uncertainty ratio as functions of time.
Our results show that hydrogenic radial squeezed states provide a suitable
analytical description of hydrogenic Rydberg atoms excited by short-pulsed
laser fields.
