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arXiv:2104.11780 · Physical Review A

Poisson bracket operator

Tomoi Koide C

Published Oct 14, 2021• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We introduce the Poisson bracket operator, which is an alternative quantum counterpart of the Poisson bracket. This operator is defined using the operator derivative formulated in quantum analysis and is equivalent to the Poisson bracket in the classical limit. Using this, we derive the quantum canonical equation, which describes the time evolution of operators. In the standard applications of quantum mechanics, the quantum canonical equation is equivalent to the Heisenberg equation. At the same time, this equation is applicable to $c$-number canonical variables and then coincides with the canonical equation in classical mechanics. Therefore, the Poisson bracket operator enables us to describe classical and quantum behaviors in a unified way. Moreover, the quantum canonical equation is applicable to nonstandard system where the Heisenberg equation is not defined. As an example, we consider the application to the system where $c$-number and $q$-number particles coexist. The derived dynamics satisfies the Ehrenfest theorem and the energy and momentum conservations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.042213

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We introduce the Poisson bracket operator, which is an alternative quantum counterpart of the Poisson bracket. This operator is defined using the operator derivative formulated in quantum analysis and is equivalent to the Poisson bracket in the classical limit. Using this, we derive the quantum canonical equation, which describes the time evolution of operators. In the standard applications of quantum mechanics, the quantum canonical equation is equivalent to the Heisenberg equation. At the same time, this equation is applicable to ccc-number canonical variables and then coincides with the canonical equation in classical mechanics. Therefore, the Poisson bracket operator enables us to describe classical and quantum behaviors in a unified way. Moreover, the quantum canonical equation is applicable to nonstandard system where the Heisenberg equation is not defined. As an example, we consider the application to the system where ccc-number and qqq-number particles coexist. The derived dynamics satisfies the Ehrenfest theorem and the energy and momentum conservations.
In the first part of this series we have shown how the Schrodinger equation for a single particle and the corresponding non relativistic quantum observables can be obtained from a purely classical phonon model through the Newtonian equations of motion. In this work we focus instead on how the classical Hamiltonian formalism applied to the same phonon system allows to recover the feature of relativistic quantum mechanics for a single spinless particle. Using the classical nature of the phonon model, we naturally define continuous Poisson brackets between classical observables, which allows to recover the dynamics of such observables, i.e. the Ehrenfest relations associated to real-valued Klein-Gordon fields. The Poisson brackets also permits to obtain the generic form of constants of motions, thus generalizing the concept of inner products and momentum on Klein-Gordon fields. We then connect the formalism of real-valued classical functionals with that of hermitian operators and complex-valued wave functions. This is done through the introduction of a non-local complex-valued change of variables which allows to rewrite the real-valued Klein-Gordon equation in a form akin to the Schrodinger equation, and the classical observables as quantum expectation values. Then, we show how this change of variables allows to rewrite the classical Poisson brackets as commutators of hermitian operators. This points out the strict equivalence between the Heisenberg formalism and the formalism of classical Poisson bracket. Eventually, we illustrate how the Poisson brackets allows to recover the transformations of Poincare group in 1+1 dimension together with its algebra. The latter makes the link between the Lorentz invariant inner product of Mostafazadeh and the Casimir invariant associated to the mass of particle.
Quantum dynamics (i.e. the Schrödinger equation) and classical dynamics (i.e. Hamilton equations) can both be formulated in equal geometric terms: a Poisson bracket defined on a manifold. In this paper, we first show that the hybrid quantum-classical dynamics prescribed by the Ehrenfest equations can also be formulated within this general framework, what has been used in the literature to construct propagation schemes for Ehrenfest dynamics. Then, the existence of a well-defined Poisson bracket allows us to arrive to a Liouville equation for a statistical ensemble of Ehrenfest systems. The study of a generic toy model shows that the evolution produced by Ehrenfest dynamics is ergodic and therefore the only constants of motion are functions of the Hamiltonian. The emergence of the canonical ensemble characterized by the Boltzmann distribution follows after an appropriate application of the principle of equal a priori probabilities to this case. Once we know the canonical distribution of an Ehrenfest system, it is straightforward to extend the formalism of Nosé (invented to do constant temperature molecular dynamics by a non-stochastic method) to our Ehrenfest formalism. This work also provides the basis for extending stochastic methods to Ehrenfest dynamics.
This chapter explores the Schrödinger and Heisenberg pictures in quantum mechanics, emphasizing their mathematical equivalence and physical consistency. The two formulations are shown to be connected by a unitary transformation. The Heisenberg equation of motion is derived, and the time evolution of operators—particularly those not explicitly dependent on time—is expressed in terms of their initial values. It is demonstrated that scalar products, expectation values, matrix elements, and commutation relations remain invariant under the change of picture. Drawing a close analogy with classical mechanics, Dirac's insight is presented: the quantum mechanical counterpart of the classical Poisson bracket is the operator commutator divided by iℏ . The chapter concludes by deriving the Lorentz force law within the quantum framework using commutator algebra. Metadata/Keywords: Schrödinger picture, Heisenberg picture, unitary transformation, Heisenberg equation of motion, Poisson bracket, Lorentz force, time evolution, expectation values
In this work, the commutator of any two reasonable functions of several pairs of canonical conjugate operators is obtained as a sum of terms of partial derivatives of those functions (equations 9, 10 or 11). When applied to quantum mechanics, first term in the sum is formally equivalent to Poisson bracket in classical mechanics, which is a well-known result. The novelty respect other papers is the type of functions of operators considered: equations mentioned are proved valid when each function is an infinite series of positive and negative powers of these operators, as long as every series converges. Therefore, this formalism can be applied to functions such as the Coulomb potential, where the inverse of radial distance cannot be expressed as a Taylor series.
We study compound systems with a classical sector and a quantum sector. Among other consistency conditions we require a canonical structure, that is, a Lie bracket for the dynamical evolution of hybrid observables in the Heisenberg picture, interpolating between the Poisson bracket and the commutator. Weak and strong postulates are proposed. We explicitly construct one such hybrid bracket when the Hilbert space of the quantum sector is finite dimensional and show that it is unique if the strong postulates are enforced. The adjoint bracket for the Schr\"odinger picture version of the dynamics is also obtained. Unfortunately, preservation of the positivity of the density matrix under the evolution is not guaranteed. The case of a particle with classical position and momentum and quantum spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ is discussed and the spin-orbit dynamics is worked out.
We study compound systems with a classical sector and a quantum sector. Among other consistency conditions we require a canonical structure, that is, a Lie bracket for the dynamical evolution of hybrid observables in the Heisenberg picture, interpolating between the Poisson bracket and the commutator. Weak and strong postulates are proposed. We explicitly construct one such hybrid bracket when the Hilbert space of the quantum sector is finite dimensional and show that it is unique if the strong postulates are enforced. The adjoint bracket for the Schrodinger picture version of the dynamics is also obtained. Unfortunately, preservation of the positivity of the density matrix under the evolution is not guaranteed. The case of a particle with classical position and momentum and quantum spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ is discussed and the spin-orbit dynamics is worked out.