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arXiv:2308.15934 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Uncertainty relation for non-Hermitian operators

Fabio Bagarello

Published Sep 20, 2023• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we discuss some aspects of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, mostly from the point of view of non self-adjoint operators. Some equivalence results, and some refinements of the inequality, are deduced, and some relevant examples are discussed. We also begin a sort of dynamical analysis of the relation, in connection with what has been recently called γ-dynamics and γ-symmetries, and we discuss in some details the role of different scalar products in our analysis. The case of self-adjoint operators is recovered as a special case of our general settings.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/acfbc7

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Abstract In this paper we discuss some aspects of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, mostly from the point of view of non self-adjoint operators. Some equivalence results, and some refinements of the inequality, are deduced, and some relevant examples are discussed. We also begin a sort of dynamical analysis of the relation, in connection with what has been recently called γ-dynamics and γ-symmetries, and we discuss in some details the role of different scalar products in our analysis. The case of self-adjoint operators is recovered as a special case of our general settings.
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A concise review of various mathematical formulations of the uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics discovered since 1927 is given. Besides the traditional Heisenberg inequality, the modifications made by Schrödinger and Robertson, as well as generalizations to sets of several noncommuting operators, are considered. The "entropic" inequalities and "local" uncertainty relations, together with inequalities which connect the so-called total width and the mean peak width of a wave function, are discussed. Inequalities for the products of higher order moments of the coordinate and momentum are presented. Inequalities making the uncertainty relations more accurate when the "purity" of a quantum state is fixed are demonstrated. Diverse formulations of the energy-time uncertainty relations are considered.
The historical development of uncertainty relation, begining with first Heisenberg's thoughts of uncertainty principle is summed up in this thesis. After proving validity of Schwarz inequality general uncertainty relation for two hermitian operators is obtained, and from this general version the validity of Heisenberg uncertainty relation is than proved. The most important part of this work is the obtention of two new uncertainty relations, which are stronger then Heisenberg or Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation, and their specific form for two examples - a free particle in a state discribed by the gaussian wave packet and the linear harmonic oscillator with a wave function in the shape of gaussian packet.
Abstract Real Hilbert space is a Euclidean space of infinite dimensionality. Complex Hilbert space is less amenable to elementary geometrical intuitions, but these do serve to give structure to the present argument. The familiar process of finding, relative to a vector x, the expectation Ā of a self-adjoint linear operator A, and then using the deviation A — Ā to obtain a dispersion ΔA, may be interpreted as a projection leading to a unit vector e orthogonal to x. If we have n self-adjoint operators Ar, we thus form n unit vectors er orthogonal to x. From a basic property of Hilbert space, the vector c1e1 + c2e2 + ... + cnen has a non-negative norm for arbitrary complex coefficients. This demands the positive-indefinite character of a real quadratic form in 2n variables; equivalently, all its eigenvalues must be non-negative. This leads to inequalities on the dispersions ΔAr, the expectations of the commutators i[Ar, As] and other expectations. For n = 2, this process leads to Schrödinger’s improvement of the Heisenberg inequality. The case n = 3 is here worked out explicitly.