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arXiv:1905.11999 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Quantum mechanics in magnetic backgrounds with manifest symmetry and locality

Joe Davighi, Ben Gripaios, Joseph Tooby‐Smith

Published Mar 18, 2020• 3 citations
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Abstract

Abstract The usual methods for formulating and solving the quantum mechanics of a particle moving in a magnetic field respect neither locality nor any global symmetries which happen to be present. For example, Landau’s solution for a particle moving in a uniform magnetic field in the plane involves choosing a gauge in which neither translation nor rotation invariance are manifest. We show that locality can be made manifest by passing to a redundant description in which the particle moves on a U(1)-principal bundle over the original configuration space and that symmetry can be made manifest by passing to a corresponding central extension of the original symmetry group by U(1). With the symmetry manifest, one can attempt to solve the problem by using harmonic analysis and we provide a number of examples where this succeeds. One is a solution of the Landau problem in an arbitrary gauge (with either translation invariance or the full Euclidean group manifest). Another example is the motion of a fermionic rigid body, which can be formulated and solved in a manifestly local and symmetric way via a flat connection on the non-trivial U(1)-central extension of the configuration space SO(3) given by U(2).

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/ab78ce

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quant-pharXiv:2607.25684•Jul 29, 2026
Abstract The usual methods for formulating and solving the quantum mechanics of a particle moving in a magnetic field respect neither locality nor any global symmetries which happen to be present. For example, Landau’s solution for a particle moving in a uniform magnetic field in the plane involves choosing a gauge in which neither translation nor rotation invariance are manifest. We show that locality can be made manifest by passing to a redundant description in which the particle moves on a U(1)-principal bundle over the original configuration space and that symmetry can be made manifest by passing to a corresponding central extension of the original symmetry group by U(1). With the symmetry manifest, one can attempt to solve the problem by using harmonic analysis and we provide a number of examples where this succeeds. One is a solution of the Landau problem in an arbitrary gauge (with either translation invariance or the full Euclidean group manifest). Another example is the motion of a fermionic rigid body, which can be formulated and solved in a manifestly local and symmetric way via a flat connection on the non-trivial U(1)-central extension of the configuration space SO(3) given by U(2).
The usual methods for formulating and solving the quantum mechanics of a particle moving in a magnetic field respect neither locality nor any global symmetries which happen to be present. For example, Landau’s solution for a particle moving in a uniform magnetic field in the plane involves choosing a gauge in which neither translation nor rotation invariance are manifest. We show that locality can be made manifest by passing to a redundant description in which the particle moves on a U(1)-principal bundle over the original configuration space and that symmetry can be made manifest by passing to a corresponding central extension of the original symmetry group by U(1). With the symmetry manifest, one can attempt to solve the problem by using harmonic analysis and we provide a number of examples where this succeeds. One is a solution of the Landau problem in an arbitrary gauge (with either translation invariance or the full Euclidean group manifest). Another example is the motion of a fermionic rigid body, which can be formulated and solved in a manifestly local and symmetric way via a flat connection on the non-trivial U(1)-central extension of the configuration space SO(3) given by U(2).
Even though its classical equations of motion are then left invariant, when an action is redefined by an additive total derivative or divergence term (in time, in the case of a mechanical system) such a transformation induces non-trivial consequences for the system’s canonical phase space formulation. This is even more true and then in more subtle ways for the canonically quantized dynamics, with, in particular, an induced transformation in the unitary configuration space representation of the Heisenberg algebra being used for the quantum system. When coupled to a background gauge field, such considerations become crucial for a proper understanding of the consequences for the system’s quantum dynamics of gauge transformations of that classical external background gauge field, while under such transformations, the system’s degrees of freedom, abstract quantum states and quantum dynamics are certainly strictly invariant. After a detailed analysis of these different points in a general context, these are then illustrated specifically in the case of the quantum Landau problem with its classical external background magnetic vector potential for which the most general possible parametrized gauge choice is implemented herein. The latter discussion aims as well to clarify some perplexing statements in the literature regarding the status of gauge choices to be made for the magnetic vector potential for that quantum system. The role of the global spacetime symmetries of the Landau problem and their gauge invariant Noether charges is then also emphasized.
The motion of a charged particle moving on a flat surface is studied through the constants of motion associated with the system, given the magnetic gauge. The usual Landau’ solution and the non-separable solution for the Landau’s gauge are found, and a new non-separable solution for the symmetric gauge is given. As a consequence of this, the quantization of the magnetic flux results from the invariance of the solutions under the unitary transformations which arise from the operator’s constants of motion.
Using the Landau and symmetric gauges for the vector potential of a constant magnetic field and the quantum problem of a charged particle moving on a flat surface, we show the classical electromagnetic gauge transformation does not correspond to a one-dimensional unitary group transformation U(1) of the wave function for the quantum case. In addition, with the re-examination of the relation between the magnetic field B and its vector potential A, we found that, in order to have a consistent formulation of the dynamics of the charged particle with both expressions, we must have that B=∇×A if and only if B≠0.
The problem of a single electron in a magnetic field is revisited from first principles. It is shown that the standard quantization, used by Landau, is inconsistent for this problem, whence Landau's wave functions spontaneously break the gauge symmetry of translations in the plane. Because of this Landau's (and Fock's) wave functions have a spurious second quantum number. The one-body wave function of the physical orbit, with only one quantum number, is derived, and expressed as a superposition of Landau's wave functions. Conversely, it is shown that Landau's wave functions are a limiting case of physical solutions of a different problem, where two quantum numbers naturally appear. When the translation gauge symmetry is respected, the degeneracy related to the choice of orbit center does not appear in the one-body problem.
We study the quantum mechanics of a charged particle confined to the surface of a cube enclosing a magnetic monopole. The magnetic field is chosen to have a constant magnitude on each face and to point along the outward normal, preserving the rotational symmetry of the cube. We formulate the continuum problem using two gauge patches on the cube surface and show that consistency of the wavefunction gives the Dirac quantization condition. Since an explicit vector potential does not remain invariant under ordinary rotations, we construct gauge-modified rotation operators and use them to classify the eigenstates. Even monopole charges are described by the irreducible representations of the cubic rotation group O, while odd monopole charges require the spinorial representations of the binary octahedral group 2O. We compute the spectrum with a gauge-covariant finite-difference discretization and find Landau-level-like manifolds whose degeneracies are split by the discrete cubic symmetry. We also study the corresponding tight-binding Hofstadter problem on the discretized cube. The resulting spectrum contains the usual magnetic subband structure together with additional gap states localized near the cube corners.