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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

A covariant approach to the quantization of a rigid body

Marco Modugno, Carlos Prieto, Raffaele F. Vitolo

Published Jan 4, 2008• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper concerns the quantization of a rigid body in the framework of 'covariant quantum mechanics' on a curved spacetime with absolute time. We consider the configuration space of n classical particles as the n -fold product of the configuration space of one particle. Then, we impose a rigid constraint and the resulting space is dealt with as a configuration space of a single abstract 'particle'. This classical framework turns out to be suitable for the formulation of covariant quantum mechanics according to this scheme. Thus, we quantize such a 'particle' accordingly. This scheme can model, e.g., the quantum dynamics of extremely cold molecules. We provide a new mathematical interpretation of two-valued wavefunctions on SO (3) in terms of single-valued sections of a new non-trivial quantum bundle. These results have clear analogies with spin.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/41/3/035304

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This paper concerns the quantization of a rigid body in the framework of 'covariant quantum mechanics' on a curved spacetime with absolute time. We consider the configuration space of n classical particles as the n -fold product of the configuration space of one particle. Then, we impose a rigid constraint and the resulting space is dealt with as a configuration space of a single abstract 'particle'. This classical framework turns out to be suitable for the formulation of covariant quantum mechanics according to this scheme. Thus, we quantize such a 'particle' accordingly. This scheme can model, e.g., the quantum dynamics of extremely cold molecules. We provide a new mathematical interpretation of two-valued wavefunctions on SO (3) in terms of single-valued sections of a new non-trivial quantum bundle. These results have clear analogies with spin.
This paper concerns the quantisation of a rigid body in the framework of ``covariant quantum mechanics'' on a curved spacetime with absolute time. The basic idea is to consider the multi-configuration space, i.e. the configuration space for nnn particles, as the nnn-fold product of the configuration space for one particle. Then we impose a rigid constraint on the multi-configuration space. The resulting space is then dealt with as a configuration space of a single abstract `particle'. The same idea is applied to all geometric and dynamical structures. We show that the above configuration space fits into the general framework of ``covariant quantum mechanics''. Hence, the methods of this theory can be applied to the rigid body. Accordingly, we find exactly two inequivalent choices of quantum structures for the rigid body. Then, we evaluate the quantum energy and momentum operators and the `rotational part' of their spectra. We provide a new mathematical interpretation of two-valued wavefunctions on SO(3) in terms of single-valued sections of a new non-trivial quantum bundle. These results have clear analogies with spin.
Developed are the main ideas of the quantized version of affinely-rigid motion. We base on the usual Schrodinger formulation of quantum me- chanics in the configuration manifold. The latter is given, in our case, by the affine group or equivalently by the semi-direct product ofthe linear group GL(n,R) and the space of translations R n , where n equals the di- mension of the physical space. In particular, we discuss the problem of the dynamical invariance of the kinetic energy under the action of affine group, not only under the isometry subgroup. Technically, the treatment is based on the two-polar decomposition of the matrix of the internal con- figuration space and on the Peter-Weyl theory of generalized Fourier series on Lie groups. One can hope that our results may be applied in quantum problems of nuclear dynamics or even in apparently exotic phenomena in vibrating neutron stars. And, of course, some more prosaic applications in molecular dynamics are possible. It is well known that every dynamical scheme, both mechanical and field- theoretical, may be formulated in two alternative versions: classical and quan- tum. This is always formally possible, although there are situations when one of those versions looks artificial, either classical or quantum. Besides, there are still some non-solved problems concerning the relationship between classical and quantum levels of description. Roughly speaking, they have to do with the mea- surement phenomena and decoherence processes. There is a whole spectrum of views, like, e.g.:
In quantum time (QT) schemes, time is promoted to a degree of freedom, allowing Lorentz covariance to be made explicit for single particles. We ask whether this can be lifted to QFT, so that Lorentz covariance becomes manifest at the Hilbert-space level, rather than being hidden as in the standard canonical formulation. We address this question by proposing a second-quantized approach in which the elementary particle is the QT particle itself, leading naturally to the notion of spacetime field algebras and of quantum action. We show, however, that a naive many-body construction runs into inconsistencies. To pinpoint their origin we introduce a classical counterpart of the second-quantized formalism, spacetime classical mechanics (SCM), and prove a no-go theorem: Dirac quantization of SCM collapses back to standard QFT and therefore hides covariance. We circumvent this problem by presenting a quantum-action-based quantization that yields a spacetime version of quantum mechanics (SQM), making covariance manifest for (interacting) QFTs. Finally, we show that this resolution is tied to a genuine spacetime generalization of the notion of quantum state, required by causality and closely connected to recent ``states over time'' proposals and, in dS/CFT-motivated settings, to microscopic notions of timelike entanglement and emergent time.
We present covariant quantization rules for nonsingular finite-dimensional classical theories with flat and curved configuration spaces. In the beginning, we construct a family of covariant quantizations in flat spaces and Cartesian coordinates. This family is parametrized by a function ω(θ)\omega (\theta )ω(θ) , θ∈(1,0)\theta \in (1,0)θ∈(1,0) , which describes an ambiguity of the quantization. We generalize this construction presenting covariant quantizations of theories with flat configuration spaces but already with arbitrary curvilinear coordinates. Then we construct a so-called minimal family of covariant quantizations for theories with curved configuration spaces. This family of quantizations is parametrized by the same function ω(θ).\omega (\theta ).ω(θ). Finally, we describe a more wide family of covariant quantizations in curved spaces. This family is already parametrized by two functions, the previous one ω(θ)\omega (\theta )ω(θ) and by an additional function Θ(x,ξ)\varTheta (x,\xi )Θ(x,ξ) . The above mentioned minimal family is a part at Θ=1\varTheta =1Θ=1 of the wide family of quantizations. We study constructed quantizations in detail, proving their consistency and covariance. As a physical application, we consider a quantization of a non-relativistic particle moving in a curved space, discussing the problem of a quantum potential. Applying the covariant quantizations in flat spaces to an old problem of constructing quantum Hamiltonian in polar coordinates, we directly obtain a correct result.
We propose a fibre bundle formulation of the mathematical base of relativistic quantum mechanics. At the present stage the bundle form of the theory is equivalent to its conventional one, but it admits new types of generalizations in different directions. In the present, second, part of our investigation, we consider a covariant approach to bundle description of relativistic quantum mechanics. In it the wavefunctions are replaced with (state) sections of a suitably chosen vector bundle over space-time whose (standard) fibre is the space of the wavefunctions. Now the quantum evolution is described as a linear transportation (by means of the transport along the identity map of the space\nobreakdash-time) of the state sections in the (total) bundle space. Connections between the (retarded) Green functions of the relativistic wave equations and the evolution operators and transports are found. Especially the Dirac and Klein-Gordon equations are considered.