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arXiv:0908.1276 · American Journal of Physics

Gauge transformation through an accelerated frame of reference

Ashish Shukla, Kaushik Bhattacharya

Published May 12, 2010• 5 citations
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Abstract

The Schrödinger equation of a charged particle in a uniform electric field can be specified in either a time-independent or a time-dependent gauge. The wave functions in these two gauges are related by a phase factor reflecting the gauge symmetry of the problem. We show that the effect of such a gauge transformation connecting the two wave functions can be mimicked by the effect of two successive extended Galilean transformations. An extended Galilean transformation connects two reference frames such that one is accelerating with respect to the other.

DOI
10.1119/1.3290866

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The Schrödinger equation of a charged particle in a uniform electric field can be specified in either a time-independent or a time-dependent gauge. The wave functions in these two gauges are related by a phase factor reflecting the gauge symmetry of the problem. We show that the effect of such a gauge transformation connecting the two wave functions can be mimicked by the effect of two successive extended Galilean transformations. An extended Galilean transformation connects two reference frames such that one is accelerating with respect to the other.
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Gauge transformations of the potentials for a prescribed electromagnetic field acting on a non-relativistic charged particle are shown to induce canonical transformations in the extended phase space, in which the time and its conjugate momentum are treated as dynamical variables. The extended Hamiltonian is invariant and the extended canonical equations are covariant under a gauge transformation. The usual time-dependent wave equations in different gauges are obtained from the formalism by using Schrödinger representations.
We derive a useful expression for the time-development operator for quantum wave functions, exp(−iĤt/ℏ), for the case of a particle subject to a constant force. We apply it, in both position and momentum space, to construct wave packets that exhibit uniform acceleration. We use these results to generate quantum wave packets corresponding to the motion of a charged particle in a uniform electric field in two different gauges, explicitly demonstrating the change in phase of the wave function under a gauge transformation. The more standard description of the time dependence of accelerating wave packets using the formalism of propagators is briefly reviewed in an Appendix for comparison.
Recently, it is shown that the extended phase space formulation of quantum mechanics is a suitable technique for studying the quantum dissipative systems. Here, as a further application of this formalism, we consider a dissipative system of charged particles interacting with an external time dependent electric field. Such a system has been investigated by Buch and Denman, and two distinct solutions with completely different structure have been obtained for Schrödinger's equation in two different gauges. However, by generalizing the gauge transformations to the phase space and using the extended phase space technique to study the same system, we demonstrate how both gauges lead to the same conductivity, suggesting the recovery of gauge invariance for this physical quantity within the extended phase space approach.
Recently, it is shown that the extended phase space formulation of quantum mechanics is a suitable technique for studying the quantum dissipative system. Here, as an application of this formalism, we consider a dissipative system of charged particles interacting with an external time dependent electric field. Such a system has been investigating by Buch and Denman, and two solutions with completely different structure have been obtained for Schrödinger's equation in two different gauges. We demonstrate how both gauges lead to the same conductivity by generalizing the gauge transformations to the phase space and using the extended phase space technique.
This paper undertakes a study of the nature of the force associated with the local U (1) gauge symmetry of a non-relativistic quantum particle. To ensure invariance under local U (1) symmetry, a matter field must couple to a gauge field. We show that such a gauge field necessarily satisfies the Maxwell equations, whether the matter field coupled to it is relativistic or non-relativistic. This result suggests that the structure of the Maxwell equations is determined by gauge symmetry rather than the symmetry transformation properties of space-time. In order to assess the validity of this notion, we examine the transformation properties of the coupled matter and gauge fields under Galilean transformations. Our main technical result is the Galilean invariance of the full equations of motion of the U (1) gauge field.