This paper is a group-theoretical study of the kinematics of n nonrelativistic particles. A systematic method is given to construct a new complete set of commuting observables. The method is based on the existence of a group (the ``great group'') which acts transitively on the phase-space manifold and preserves the phase-space volume element; the observables are then Casimir operators of the great group and of some of its subgroups, including the usual three-dimensional rotation group. Among these collective observables, in addition to the total angular momentum, the most interesting is the ``togetherness operator'' which describes the simultaneous localization of the n particles. This operator is a generalization to n > 2 of the square of orbital angular momentum; its use allows to generalize to n particles the familiar centrifugal barrier arguments.
This paper is a group-theoretical study of the kinematics of n nonrelativistic particles. A systematic method is given to construct a new complete set of commuting observables. The method is based on the existence of a group (the great group'') which acts transitively on the phase-space manifold and preserves the phase-space volume element; the observables are then Casimir operators of the great group and of some of its subgroups, including the usual three-dimensional rotation group. Among these collective observables, in addition to the total angular momentum, the most interesting is the togetherness operator'' which describes the simultaneous localization of the n particles. This operator is a generalization to n > 2 of the square of orbital angular momentum; its use allows to generalize to n particles the familiar centrifugal barrier arguments.
The kinematics of a nonrelativistic three-particle system is studied with the help of the general method devised by Lévy-Leblond and Lurçat. Basis states are constructed which are eigenstates, in addition to the total momentum-energy, angular momentum, etc., of new observables; among these, the ``togetherness tensor'' describes the simultaneous localization of the three particles and therefore is of great physical interest. All of these observables arise as Casimir operators of a ``great group'' acting on the three-particle phase-space manifold in a transitive way, and of some of its subgroups. In the present case, by trying to keep all the particles on the same footing (``democracy'' arguments), we are led to choose the SU3 group as a particularly convenient ``great group''. We thus recover completely the Dragt classification of non-relativistic three-particle states. The explicit calculation of the basis functions is done in a new way, by analytical methods, solving partial derivative equations. This enables us to establish the most general form of these basis functions.
The ``global method'' for describing N-particle systems (which relies on the existence of a large invariance group of the total Hamiltonian for N noninteracting particles, the ``great group'', whose Lie algebra is generated by the ``grand angular momentum tensor''), is adapted to describe systems of identical particles by means of basis states with simple symmetry properties (with respect to permutations of the particles). We are led to define and study the concept of ``democracy'' among the particles, from which we obtain the ``democratic'' subgroups of the great group. The eigenvectors of a complete set of commuting observables, consisting essentially of Casimir operators of democratic subgroups, may furnish the desired basis. Unfortunately the scheme is seen to be sufficient only in the 3- and 4-particle cases, which, however, are most important. The Appendix contains a discussion of the possible relativistic generalizations of the global method.
The canonical commutation relations of quantum mechanics are generalized to the case where appropriate dynamical variables are angular-momentum, rotation-angle, and rotation-axis observables. To this end, SU(2) is “quantized” on the compact group manifold, according to the standard procedure of non-Abelian quantum kinematics. Quantum-kinematic invariant operators are introduced, and their commutation relations with the rotation variables are found in an explicit manner. The quantum-kinematic invariants yield superselection rules in the form of eigenvalue equations of an isotopic structure (which one should solve in the applications, in order to get multiplets that carry the irreducible representations of the underlying quantum kinematic models). A wide range of applicability of SU(2) quantum kinematics is suggested.
For n particles moving in three-dimensional space, each coordinate should carry an index i = 1, 2,3 denoting the vector component and an index l = 1, 2,..., n denoting the particle number. Among the linear point transformations acting on these coordinates there are two commuting subgroups of transformations. The elements of the first one are given by product matrices M 3 × I n where the 3 × 3 matrix M 3 acts on the vector components. The elements of the second one are of the form I 3 × M n where the n × n matrix M n acts on the vectors for the different particles. To the first subgroup there belong the rotations giving rise to the rotation group SO (3, IR). The second subgroup contains permutations and transformations to various types of relative coordinates. In the present section we shall deal with this second subgroup and hence shall drop the reference to the three vector components. Moreover we shall need at present only orthogonal n × n transformation matrices.
A noncanonical quantum system, consisting of two nonrelativistic particles, interacting via a harmonic potential, is considered. The center-of-mass position and momentum operators obey the canonical commutation relations, whereas the internal variables are assumed to be the odd generators of the Lie superalgebra sl(1,2). This assumption implies a set of constraints in the phase space, which are explicitly written in the paper. All finite-dimensional irreducible representations of sl(1,2) are considered. Particular attention is paid to the physical representations, i.e., the representations corresponding to Hermitian position and momentum operators. The properties of the physical observables are investigated. In particular, the operators of the internal Hamiltonian, the relative distance, the internal momentum, and the orbital momentum commute with each other. The spectrum of these operators is finite. The distance between the constituents is preserved in time. It can take no more than three different values. For any non-negative integer or half-integer l there exists a representation, where the orbital momentum is l (in units of 2ℏ). The position of any one of the particles cannot be localized, since the operators of the coordinates do not commute with each other. The constituents are smeared with a certain probability within a finite surface, which moves with a constant velocity together with the center of mass.
Starting from square-integrable wave functions on a Lie group, we build an invertible Fourier transform mapping them on wave functions on the dual of the Lie algebra. This is a group-theoretic version of the map from position space to momentum space, with generally noncommuting momenta owing to the group structure. As a result, the multiplication of momentum-dependent functions involves star products, which makes the construction of noncommutative Fourier series much more involved than that of their commutative cousin. This is especially true when compact subgroups are present, in which case we carefully take into account quotients of the operator algebra, and the resulting normalization issues. We show that our formalism provides an isometry of Hilbert spaces, and use it to derive a noncommutative Poisson summation formula for any compact Lie group. This is a key preliminary for the computation of Wigner functions and path integrals for quantum systems on group manifolds.