The behaviour of quantum systems in non-inertial frames is revisited from the point of view of affine coherent state (ACS) quantization. We restrict our approach to the one-particle dynamics confined in a rotating plane about a fixed axis. This plane is considered as punctured due to the existence of the rotation center, which is viewed as a singularity. The corresponding phase space is the affine group of the plane and the ACS quantization enables us to quantize the system by respecting the affine symmetry of the true phase space. Our formulation predicts the appearance of an additional quantum centrifugal term, besides the usual angular-momentum one, which prevents the particle to reach the singular rotation center. Moreover it helps us to understand why two different non-inertial Schrödinger equations are obtained in previous works. The validity of our equation can be confirmed experimentally by observing the harmonic oscillator bound states and the critical angular velocity for their existence.
The behaviour of quantum systems in non-inertial frames is revisited from the point of view of affine coherent state (ACS) quantization. We restrict our approach to the one-particle dynamics confined in a rotating plane about a fixed axis. This plane is considered as punctured due to the existence of the rotation center, which is viewed as a singularity. The corresponding phase space is the affine group of the plane and the ACS quantization enables us to quantize the system by respecting the affine symmetry of the true phase space. Our formulation predicts the appearance of an additional quantum centrifugal term, besides the usual angular-momentum one, which prevents the particle to reach the singular rotation center. Moreover it helps us to understand why two different non-inertial Schrödinger equations are obtained in previous works. The validity of our equation can be confirmed experimentally by observing the harmonic oscillator bound states and the critical angular velocity for their existence.
We present an application of the affine covariant integral quantization (ACIQ) (Adv. Oper. Theory, 5, 2020; Adv. Oper. Theory, 7, 2022) to quantum mechanics on the punctured plane. The associated four-dimensional phase space is identified with the similitude group SIM(2), which comprises translations, rotations, and dilations of the plane. Due to the topology of the punctured plane, our quantization procedure gives rise to an affine vector potential. This potential can be interpreted as the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) gauge field produced by an infinite solenoid. This observation supports a reinterpretation of the AB effect: it emerges from the topological constraint imposed by the impenetrable coil rather than from an externally applied classical gauge field. In addition to this gauge structure, ACIQ also generates a repulsive, centrifugal-like scalar potential, a feature already encountered when applying ACIQ to motion on the half-line, whose phase space is the open half-plane. These results provide a new perspective on the AB effect, highlighting the central roles of topology and symmetry in quantum mechanics.
As the mechanical counterpart of the Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Cashier effect in a magnetic field, the existence and possibility of observation of a quantum interference effect between the split paths of a coherent particle beam in a uniformly rotating frame have been studied previously. The discussion is now generalized to the case of a reference frame rotating at arbitrarily time-varying angular velocity about a fixed center. The phase difference between the split beams of particles and the resulting interference pattern depend not only upon the speed, but also upon the orientation of the axis of rotation. The conclusion may have, therefore, inferences on gyroscopic applications.
As the mechanical counterpart of the Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Cashier effect in a magnetic field, the existence and possibility of observation of a quantum interference effect between the split paths of a coherent particle beam in a uniformly rotating frame have been studied previously. The discussion is now generalized to the case of a reference frame rotating at arbitrary time varying angular velocity about a fixed center. The phase difference between the split beams of particles and the resulting interference pattern depend not only upon the speed, but also upon the orientation of the axis of rotation. The conclusion may have, therefore, inferences on gyroscopic applications.
The non-relativistic version of the multi-temporal quantization scheme of relativistic particles in a family of non-inertial frames (see hep-th/0502194) is defined. At the classical level the description of a family of non-rigid non-inertial frames, containing the standard rigidly linear accelereted and rotating ones, is given in the framework of parametrized Galilei theories. Then the multi-temporal quantization, in which the gauge variables, describing the non-inertial effects, are not quantized but considered as c-number generalized times, is applied to non relativistic particles. It is shown that with a suitable ordering there is unitary evolution in all times and that, after the separation of center of mass, it is still possible to identify the inertial bound states. The few existing results of quantization in rigid non-inertial frames are recovered as special cases.
The separation of the dynamics of the quantum many-body systems into the overall rotation and internal motions leads to their quantization in rotating frames. Whereas the rotating body frame is unique for a rigid body, there is a great degree of freedom for choosing a body frame for a general rotating and vibrating N-particle system. This, in turn, implies the need to study many-body systems for a class of body frames.The concept of vibrational coordinates and of rotational coordinates is particularly clear for the case of a triatomic molecule: three particles form a single plane, in which the molecule vibrates, and at the same time the molecular plane rotates in the space-fixed frame of reference. The overall molecular rotation is made explicit by means of an orthogonal transformation, which brings the space-fixed into the body-fixed axes. The direction perpendicular to the molecular plane uniquely determines one of the three axes of the frame. Rotation about this direction will change the position of the axes in the molecular plane, in fact the axis system. It is already intuitively clear that this axis transformation will not affect the vibrational portion of the kinetic energy operator. The other parts of the kinetic energy, the rotational part and the rotation-vibration coupling part, will then need to adjust themselves to the new definition of the body frame. In this fashion, we may address the problem of the interaction of rotations and vibrations, which is one of the most important problems in molecular studies.The variation of the rovibrational kinetic energy operator following a change of orientation of the axis system is investigated in the present work from the physical and mathematical points of view. Various types of axis embedding are analyzed in a systematic fashion for triatomic molecules of arbitrary structure, including the bisector, principal axis, and Eckart frames. We also consider the bisector axis embedding for tetratomic molecules and the local axis embedding for pentatomic molecules. Different axis conventions lead sometimes to a complex entanglement of rotational and vibrational motions, which may pose serious obstacles to numerically exact approaches.
The states of a planar oscillator are separated to a vibrational mode, containing a zero-point energy, and a rotational mode without the zero-point energy, but having a conserved angular momentum.On the basis of the analysis of properties of models of rigid and semirigid rotators, the theory of soft rotators is formulated where the harmonic attractive force is balanced only by the centrifugal force.As examples a Coulomb rotator (the Bohr model) and a magneto-harmonic rotator (the Fock-Landau levels) are considered.Disappearance of the radial speed in the model of a magneto-harmonic rotator is taken as a defining property of a pure rotational motion in the harmonic potential.After the exception of energies of the magnetic and spin decompositions, specific to magnetic fields, one turns to a simple and general model of a plane harmonic rotator (circular oscillator without radial speed) where kinetic energy is reduced to the purely rotational energy.Energy levels of the harmonic rotator have the same frequency and are twice degenerate, the energy spectrum is equidistant.In the ground state there is no zeropoint energy from rotational modes, and the zero-point energy of vibrational modes can be compensated by spin effects or symmetries of the system.In this case the operators of observables vanish the ground state, i.e. are "strongly" normally ordered.In a chain of harmonic rotators collective rotations around a common axis lead to transverse waves, at quantization of which there appear quasi-particles and holes carrying an angular momentum.In the chain SU (2) appears as a group of symmetry of a rotator.