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Journal of Mathematical Physics

Quantization of the conformal Kepler problem and its application to the hydrogen atom

Toshihiro Iwai

Published Jun 1, 1982• 28 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantization of the conformal Kepler problem is defined and studied in order that the quantized system, which will be referred to as a conformal hydrogen atom, may associate the harmonic oscillator with the hydrogen atom. The conformal hydrogen atom shares with the harmonic oscillator the eigenspaces of negative energies. The four-dimensional conformal hydrogen atom reduces to the three-dimensional ordinary hydrogen atom. The symmetry group SO(4) of the hydrogen atom is brought out from the symmetry subgroup of the harmonic oscillator. The conformal hydrogen atom gives an example of those quantum systems of which the configuration spaces are curved Riemannian spaces with nonconstant scalar curvatures and of which the Hamiltonian operators depend on the scalar curvatures.

DOI
10.1063/1.525473

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Quantization of the conformal Kepler problem is defined and studied in order that the quantized system, which will be referred to as a conformal hydrogen atom, may associate the harmonic oscillator with the hydrogen atom. The conformal hydrogen atom shares with the harmonic oscillator the eigenspaces of negative energies. The four-dimensional conformal hydrogen atom reduces to the three-dimensional ordinary hydrogen atom. The symmetry group SO(4) of the hydrogen atom is brought out from the symmetry subgroup of the harmonic oscillator. The conformal hydrogen atom gives an example of those quantum systems of which the configuration spaces are curved Riemannian spaces with nonconstant scalar curvatures and of which the Hamiltonian operators depend on the scalar curvatures.
Fock (1935) explained the degeneracy of the energy levels of the Kepler problem (or hydrogen atom) in terms of the dynamical symmetry group SO(4). He showed that the problem is equivalent to the geodesic flow on the sphere S 3 . The 'hidden' symmetry SO(4) is made manifest. The classical n-dimensional Kepler problem can be better understood by enlarging the phase space of the geodesical motion on S n and including time and energy as canonical variables: a following symplectomorphism transforms the motion on S n in the Kepler problem. The authors prove that the Fock procedure is the implementation at 'quantum' level of the above-mentioned symplectomorphism.
In a recent paper, it has been shown the Schrödinger equation for the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator can be simplified through the use of an isometric conformal transformation. Here, it is demonstrated that the same transformation technique is also applicable to the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom. This approach has two interesting features. Firstly, it eliminates potential fields from the Schrödinger equation. The Coulomb and harmonic binding terms are instead represented as imaginary parts of complex time. Secondly, the method leads to a general relationship between potential energy and ground state energy that encompasses both the hydrogen atom and the harmonic oscillator as special cases.
The connection between the three-dimensional hydrogen atom and a four-dimensional harmonic oscillator (or equivalently a coupled pair of two-dimensional harmonic oscillators) subjected to a constraint condition is further explored. In particular, the role the constraint condition plays in determining the phase relationship between the pair of two-dimensional oscillators is examined. Furthermore, the connection is discussed in a group-theoretical context involving the Lie algebras of SO(4), SO(3,1), E(3), SO(4,2), and Sp(8,R).
An intrinsic quantization procedure based on higher symmetries of classical dynamical systems and utilizing the techniques of van Hove and Souriau is proposed. The procedure is intrinsically Hamiltonian but not explicitly canonical in that the Heisenberg algebra plays no fundamental role. The proposed method is applied to the n-dimensional harmonic oscillator and to the n-dimensional hydrogen atom. This approach seems to provide the first intrinsic justification of the success of ordinary correspondential quantization for this last system.