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arXiv:2409.11628 · Annals of Physics

Representation theory of Gaussian unitary transformations for bosonic and fermionic systems

Tommaso Guaita, Lucas Hackl, Thomas Quella

Published Oct 17, 2026• 3 citations
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Abstract

Gaussian unitary transformations are generated by quadratic Hamiltonians, i.e., Hamiltonians containing quadratic terms in creations and annihilation operators, and are heavily used in many areas of quantum physics, ranging from quantum optics and condensed matter theory to quantum information and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. They are known to form a representation of the metaplectic and spin group for bosons and fermions, respectively. These groups are the double covers of the symplectic and special orthogonal group, respectively, and our goal is to analyze the behavior of the sign ambiguity that one needs to deal with when moving between these groups and their double cover. We relate this sign ambiguity to expectation values of the form $\langle 0|\exp{(-i\hat{H})}|0\rangle$, where $|0\rangle$ is a Gaussian state and $\hat{H}$ an arbitrary quadratic Hamiltonian. We provide closed formulas for $\langle 0|\exp{(-i\hat{H})}|0\rangle$ and show how we can efficiently describe group multiplications in the double cover without the need of going to a faithful representation on an exponentially large or even infinite-dimensional space. Our construction relies on an explicit parametrization of these two groups (metaplectic, spin) in terms of symplectic and orthogonal group elements together with a twisted U(1) group.

DOI
10.1016/j.aop.2026.170757

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Gaussian unitary transformations are generated by quadratic Hamiltonians, i.e., Hamiltonians containing quadratic terms in creations and annihilation operators, and are heavily used in many areas of quantum physics, ranging from quantum optics and condensed matter theory to quantum information and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. They are known to form a representation of the metaplectic and spin group for bosons and fermions, respectively. These groups are the double covers of the symplectic and special orthogonal group, respectively, and our goal is to analyze the behavior of the sign ambiguity that one needs to deal with when moving between these groups and their double cover. We relate this sign ambiguity to expectation values of the form ⟨0∣exp⁡(−iH^)∣0⟩\langle 0|\exp{(-i\hat{H})}|0\rangle⟨0∣exp(−iH^)∣0⟩, where ∣0⟩|0\rangle∣0⟩ is a Gaussian state and H^\hat{H}H^ an arbitrary quadratic Hamiltonian. We provide closed formulas for ⟨0∣exp⁡(−iH^)∣0⟩\langle 0|\exp{(-i\hat{H})}|0\rangle⟨0∣exp(−iH^)∣0⟩ and show how we can efficiently describe group multiplications in the double cover without the need of going to a faithful representation on an exponentially large or even infinite-dimensional space. Our construction relies on an explicit parametrization of these two groups (metaplectic, spin) in terms of symplectic and orthogonal group elements together with a twisted U(1) group.
Gaussian unitaries, generated by quadratic Hamiltonians, are fundamental in quantum optics and continuous-variable computing. Their structures correspond to symplectic (bosons) and orthogonal (fermions) groups, but physical realizations give rise to their respective double covers, introducing phase and sign ambiguities. The homogeneous (quadratic-only) case has been resolved through a parameterization constructed in a recent work [arXiv:2409.11628]. We extend the previous framework to inhomogeneous Gaussian unitaries parameterized by (M,z,Ψ)(M,z,Ψ)(M,z,Ψ). The Baker-Campbel-Hausdorff formula allows us then to factor any Gaussian unitary into a squeezing and a displacement transformation, from which we derive the group multiplication law.
The aim of this chapter is to construct the quantum unitary propagator for Hamiltonians which are quadratic in position and momentum with time-dependent coefficients. We show that the quantum evolution is exactly solvable in terms of the classical flow which is linear. This allows to construct the metaplectic transformations which are unitary operators in L2(Rn)L^2(\mathbb R^n)L2(Rn) corresponding to symplectic transformations. Simple examples of such metaplectic transformations are the Fourier transform, which corresponds to the symplectic matrix J defined in (3.4) and the propagator of the harmonic oscillator, corresponding to rotations in the phase space. The main results of this chapter are computations of the quantum evolution operators for quadratic Hamiltonians acting on coherent states. We show that the time evolved coherent states are still Gaussian states which are recognized to be squeezed states centered at the classical phase space point (see Chap. 8). From these computations we can deduce most of properties concerning quantum quadratic Hamiltonians. In particular we get the explicit form of the Weyl symbols of the metaplectic transformations. These formulae are generalizations of the Mehler formula for the harmonic oscillator. Quadratic Hamiltonians are very important in quantum mechanics because more general Hamiltonians can be considered as non trivial perturbations of time dependent quadratic ones as we shall see in Chap. 5.
The symplectic group Sp(n) acts on phase space while the unitary representation of its double cover, Mp(n), the metaplectic group, acts on functions defined on configuration space. We will construct an extension Mp(n) of Mp(n) acting on square integrable functions on phase space. This is performed using previous results of ours involving explicit expressions of the twisted Weyl symbols of metaplectic operators and Bopp pseudodifferential operators, which are phase space extensions of the usual Weyl operators.
Gaussian unitaries are specified by a second order polynomial in the bosonic operators, that is, by a quadratic polynomial and a linear term. From the Hamiltonian other equivalent representations of the Gaussian unitaries are obtained, such as Bogoliubov and real symplectic transformations. The paper develops an alternative representation, called complex symplectic transformation, which is more compact and is comprehensive of both Bogoliubov and real symplectic transformations. Moreover, it has other advantages. One of the main results of the theory, not available in the literature, is that the final displacement is not simply given by the linear part of the Hamiltonian, but depends also on the quadratic part. In particular, it is shown that by combining squeezing and rotation, it is possible to achieve a final displacement with an arbitrary amount.
Recent developments in the unification of quantum mechanics and relativity have emphasized the necessity of generalizing classical phase space into a relativistic quantum phase space which is a framework that inherently incorporates the uncertainty principle and relativistic covariance. In this context, the present work considers the derivation of linear and quadratic Casimir operators corresponding to representations of the Linear Canonical Transformations (LCT) group associated with a five-dimensional spacetime of signature (1,4). This LCT group, which emerges naturally as the symmetry group of the relativistic quantum phase space, is isomorphic to the symplectic group Sp(2,8). The latter notably contains the de Sitter group SO(1,4) as a subgroup. This geometric setting provides a unified framework for extending the Standard Model of particle physics while incorporating cosmological features. Previous studies have shown that the LCT group admits both fermionic-like and bosonic-like representations. Within this framework, a novel classification of quarks and leptons, including sterile neutrinos, has also been proposed. In this work, we present a systematic derivation of the linear and quadratic Casimir operators associated with these representations, motivated by their fundamental role in the characterization of symmetry groups in physics. The construction is based on the relations between the LCT group and the pseudo-unitary group U(1,4). Three linears and three quadratics Casimir operators are identified: two corresponding to the fermionic-like representation, two to the bosonic-like representation, and two hybrid operators linking the two representations. The complete eigenvalue spectra and corresponding eigenstates for each operator are subsequently computed and identified
We show the use of the theory of Lie algebras, especially their oscillator realizations, in the context of quantum mechanics. One can construct oscillator realizations from matrix realizations. In the case of symplectic and special orthogonal algebra, we demonstrate an alternative method of obtaining oscillator realizations from symmetric or exterior power of a vector space of annihilation and creation bosonic or fermionic operators. We find Lie algebra of polynomials of degree at most two in phase space of a mechanical system, which form the semi-direct product of the Heisenberg algebra and symplectic algebra. It is shown that a classical system with Hamiltonian function in this algebra can be quantized by two equivalent representations - Schrödinger or Bargmann-Fock representation. The second mentioned representation generates the same operators of symplectic algebra as we got from their previous formal construction from symmetric power of a vector space of bosonic operators. Quantization is demonstrated on the bosonic harmonic oscillator. We use the similarities between bosonic and fermionic oscillator realizations to define the fermionic harmonic oscillator. Some properties of spinor representations of special orthogonal algebra are illustrated on its state space. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)