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arXiv:1604.05968 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Magnetic monopoles in noncommutative quantum mechanics

Samuel Kováčik, Peter Prešnajder

Published Jan 1, 2017• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We discuss a certain generalization of the Hilbert space of states in noncommutative quantum mechanics that, as we show, introduces magnetic monopoles into the theory. Such generalization arises very naturally in the considered model, but can be easily reproduced in ordinary quantum mechanics as well. This approach offers a different viewpoint on the Dirac quantization condition and other important relations for magnetic monopoles. We focus mostly on the kinematic structure of the theory, but investigate also a dynamical problem (with the Coulomb potential).

DOI
10.1063/1.4973503

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We discuss a certain generalization of the Hilbert space of states in noncommutative quantum mechanics that, as we show, introduces magnetic monopoles into the theory. Such generalization arises very naturally in the considered model, but can be easily reproduced in ordinary quantum mechanics as well. This approach offers a different viewpoint on the Dirac quantization condition and other important relations for magnetic monopoles. We focus mostly on the kinematic structure of the theory, but investigate also a dynamical problem (with the Coulomb potential).
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Formulations of magnetic monopoles in a Hilbert-space formulation of quantum mechanics require Dirac's quantization condition of magnetic charge, which implies a large value that can easily be ruled out for elementary particles by standard atomic spectroscopy. However, an algebraic formulation of nonassociative quantum mechanics is mathematically consistent with fractional magnetic charges of small values. Here, spectral properties in nonassociative quantum mechanics are derived and applied to the ground state of hydrogen with a magnetically charged nucleus. The resulting energy leads to new strong upper bounds for the magnetic charge of various elementary particles that can appear as the nucleus of hydrogenlike atoms, such as the muon or the antiproton.
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The standard quantum mechanical description of the motion of a charged particle in the field of a stationary magnetic monopole is notorious for the presence of unnatural singularities in the Hamiltonian operator originating in the vector potential A(r) used to describe the magnetic field of the monopole. In this paper, an elementary quantum mechanical formulation of the problem which involves only the physically observable field B(r) is presented. This is achieved by treating as a fundamental observable of the charged particle its kinetic momentum instead of the linear momentum p . An irreducible representation of the fundamental commutation relations involving the operators and is explicitly constructed. It is shown that the existence of an irreducible representation requires that Dirac’s charge quantization condition is satisfied. Also, it is demonstrated that, from the quantum mechanical perspective, the singularities (appearing when the vector potential is introduced) are in fact properties of coordinate representations of the fundamental commutation relations.
An external magnetic field in configuration space coupled to quantum dynamics induces noncommutativity in its velocity momentum space. By phase space duality, an external vector potential in the conjugate momentum sector of the system induces noncommutativity in its configuration space. Such a rationale for noncommutativity is explored herein for an arbitrary configuration space of Euclidean geometry. Ordinary quantum mechanics with a commutative configuration space is revisited first. Through the introduction of an arbitrary positive definite ∗-product, a one-to-one correspondence between the Hilbert space of abstract quantum states and that of the enveloping algebra of the position quantum operators is identified. A parallel discussion is then presented when configuration space is noncommutative, and thoroughly analysed when the conjugate magnetic field is momentum independent and nondegenerate. Once again the space of quantum states may be identified with the enveloping algebra of the noncommutative position quantum operators. Furthermore, when the positive definite ∗-product is adapted to the conjugate magnetic field, the coordinate operators span a Fock algebra of which the coherent states are the analogues of the structureless points in a commutative configuration space. These results generalise and justify a posteriori within ordinary canonical quantisation the heuristic approach to quantum mechanics in the noncommutative Euclidean plane as constructed and developed by F. G. Scholtz and his collaborators.