In looking for quaternionic violations of quantum mechanics, we discuss the delay time for pure quaternionic potentials. Our study shows the energy region which amplifies the difference between quaternionic and complex quantum mechanics.
In looking for qualitative differences between quaternionic and complex formulations of quantum physical theories, we provide a detailed discussion of the behavior of a wave packet in the presence of a quaternionic time-independent potential step. In this paper, we restrict our attention to diffusion phenomena. For the group velocity of the wave packet moving in the potential region and for the reflection and transmission times, the study shows a striking difference between the complex and quaternionic formulations which could be matter of further theoretical discussions and could represent the starting point for a possible experimental investigation.
The complex unit appearing in the equations of quantum mechanics is generalised to a quaternionic structure on spacetime, leading to the consideration of complex quantum mechanical particles whose dynamical behaviour is governed by inhomogeneous Dirac and Schrödinger equations. Mixing of hyper-complex components of wavefunctions occurs through their interaction with potentials dissipative into the extra quaternionic degrees of freedom. An interferometric experiment is analysed to illustrate the effect.
Abstract. In looking for qualitative differences between quaternionic and complex formulations of quantum physical theories, we provide a detailed discussion of the behavior of a wave packet in presence of a quaternionic time-independent potential step. In this paper, we restrict our attention to diffusion phenomena. For the group velocity of the wave packet moving in the potential region and for the reflection and transmission times, the study shows a striking difference between the complex and quaternionic formulations which could be matter of further theoretical discussions and could represent the starting point for a possible experimental investigation. PACS. 03.65.Fd – 03.65.Nk I.
We characterize the quasianti-Hermitian quaternionic operators in quaternionic quantum mechanics by means of their spectra; moreover, we state a necessary and sufficient condition for a set of quasianti-Hermitian quaternionic operators to be anti-Hermitian with respect to a uniquely defined positive scalar product in a infinite dimensional (right) quaternionic Hilbert space. According to such results we obtain two alternative descriptions of a quantum optical physical system, in the realm of quaternionic quantum mechanics, while no alternative can exist in complex quantum mechanics, and we discuss some differences between them.
We complete the rules of translation between standard complex quantum mechanics (CQM) and quaternionic quantum mechanics (QQM) with complex geometry. In particular we describe the way in which (2n+1)-dimensional complex matrices are reduced to overlapping (n+1)-dimensional quaternionic matrices with generalized quaternionic elements. This step resolves an outstanding difficulty with reduction of purely complex matrix groups within quaternionic QM and avoids anomalous eigenstates. As a result we present a more complete translation from CQM to QQM and vice versa.