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American Journal of Physics

Canonical transformation to the free particle

Edward N. Glass, Joseph J. G. Scanio

Published Apr 1, 1977• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown how to find some canonical transformations without solving the Hamilton–Jacobi equation. The canonical transformation from the harmonic oscillator to the free particle is constructed and used as an example of transformations which cannot be maintained when going from classical to quantum systems. The group of canonical transformations which can be carried over to quantum mechanics is discussed.

DOI
10.1119/1.10618

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It is shown how to find some canonical transformations without solving the Hamilton–Jacobi equation. The canonical transformation from the harmonic oscillator to the free particle is constructed and used as an example of transformations which cannot be maintained when going from classical to quantum systems. The group of canonical transformations which can be carried over to quantum mechanics is discussed.
The quantum-mechanical version of the four kinds of classical canonical transformations is investigated by using non-Hermitian operator techniques. To help understand the usefulness of this approach, the eigenvalue problem of a harmonic oscillator is solved in two different types of canonical transformations. The quantum form of the classical Hamilton-Jacobi theory is also employed to solve time-dependent Schr\"odinger wave equations, showing that when one uses the classical action as a generating function of the quantum canonical transformation of time evolutions of state vectors, the corresponding propagator can easily be obtained.
The quantum mechanical relationships between time-dependent oscillators, Hamilton-Jacobi theory and an invariant operator are clarified by making reference to a system with a generalized oscillator. We introduce a linear transformation in position and momentum, and show that the correspondence between classical and quantum transformations is exactly one-to-one. We found that classical canonical transformations are constructed from quantum unitary transformations as long as we are concerned with linear transformations. We also show the relationship between the invariant operator and a linear transformation.
While groups of point transformations such as rotations, translations and permutations have been extensively used in quantum mechanics, we cannot say the same of the more general groups of canonical transformations. To begin with, for the latter groups we have to determine their unitary representation in appropriate spaces. But once this is achieved canonical transformations can play as important a role in quantum mechanics as point transformations. We illustrate this in relation with the harmonic oscillator in one and many dimensions and for one and many particles. We show how radial matrix elements with respect to harmonic oscillator states can be determined group theoretically both in the Schroedinger and Heisenberg pictures. We discuss the application of canonical transformations to the three body nuclear problem. We briefly outline in the concluding section applications to Coulomb problems, many body systems, accidental degeneracy, and generalized integral transforms.
Quantum canonical transformations are defined algebraically outside of a Hilbert space context. This generalizes the quantum canonical transformations of Weyl and Dirac to include non-unitary transformations. The importance of non-unitary transformations for constructing solutions of the Schr\\"odinger equation is discussed. Three elementary canonical transformations are shown both to have quantum implementations as finite transformations and to generate, classically and infinitesimally, the full canonical algebra. A general canonical transformation can be realized quantum mechanically as a product of these transformations. Each transformation corresponds to a familiar tool used in solving differential equations, and the procedure of solving a differential equation is systematized by the use of the canonical transformations. Several examples are done to illustrate the use of the canonical transformations. [This is an extensively revised version of hep-th-9205080: the first third of the paper is new material; the notation has been simplified, and further discussion has been added to the remainder.]