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arXiv:0905.1454 · Physics Letters B

An alternative construction of the positive inner product in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics

Ashok Das, L. Greenwood

Published Jul 4, 2009• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF
DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2009.06.060

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In this paper, we build on our earlier proposal for the construction of a positive inner product for pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians and present examples to clarify the procedure. We focus on two detailed calculations where the method is used, namely, a simple (generalized 2×2 matrix) pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian, which can be diagonalized, and a second system where the Hamiltonian cannot be diagonalized, but can be described as a perturbation of the harmonic oscillator. When the quantum mechanical system cannot be diagonalized exactly, our construction can be carried out perturbatively and we develop the general formalism for such a perturbative calculation systematically (for real eigenvalues).
Two non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonian systems are reconsidered by means of the algebraic method which was originally proposed for the pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian systems rather than for the PT-symmetric ones. Compared with the way converting a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian to its Hermitian counterpart, this method has the merit that keeps the Hilbert space of the non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonian unchanged. In order to give the positive definite inner product for the PT-symmetric systems, a new operator V, instead of C, can be introduced. The operator V has the similar function to the operator C adopted normally in the PT-symmetric quantum mechanics, however, it can be constructed, as an advantage, directly in terms of Hamiltonians. The spectra of the two non-Hermitian PT-symmetric systems are obtained, which coincide with that given in literature, and in particular, the Hilbert spaces associated with positive definite inner products are worked out.
Abstract The recognition that the eigenvalues of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian could all be real if the Hamiltonian had an antilinear symmetry such as PT stimulated new insight into the underlying structure of quantum mechanics. Specifically, it led to the realization that Hilbert space could be richer than the established Dirac approach of constructing inner products out of ket vectors and their Hermitian conjugate bra vectors. With antilinear symmetry one must instead build inner products out of ket vectors and their antilinear conjugates, and it is these inner products that would be time independent in the non-Hermitian but antilinearly symmetric case even as the standard Dirac inner products would not be. Moreover, and in a sense quite remarkably, antilinear symmetry could address not only the temporal behavior of the inner product but also the issue of its overall sign, with antilinear symmetry being capable of yielding a positive inner product in situations such as fourth-order derivative quantum field theories where the standard Dirac inner product is found to have ghostlike negative signature. Antilinear symmetry thus solves the ghost problem in such theories by showing that they are being formulated in the wrong Hilbert space, with antilinear symmetry providing a Hilbert space that is ghost free. Antilinear symmetry does not actually get rid of the ghost states. Rather, it shows that the reasoning that led one to think that ghosts were present in the first place is faulty. Implications of our results for constructing unitary quantum theories of gravity are presented.