Specifying their (normally ordered) characteristic functions we determine all states of the boson C *-Weyl algebra which satisfy Glauber's coherence condition and are not realizable as density operators in Fock space. The pure ones are shown to be just the eigenstates of the annihilation operators in their GNS-representations (in contrast to the Fock case) and are characterized in many equivalent manners. The central decomposition of an arbitrary coherent state has the macroscopic phase variable as parameter and is supported by the pure coherent states, which is in fact the only way for a maximal decomposition. The set of all coherent states with the same absolute factorizing function is proven to be a Bauer simplex. The appearence of a classical coherent field part is studied in detail in the GNS-representations and shown to correspond to an enlargement of the set of one boson states by just one additional mode.
The commutator of position and momentum operators is first considered in the coordinate and momentum representations, and then in an abstract Hilbert space. The reader is then introduced to canonical operators with the associated canonical quantization of commutation rules, which consists of maps defined on a symplectic space and taking values in the set of unitary operators on a Hilbert space. If the symplectic space is finite-dimensional, all of its irreducible representations are unitarily equivalent. The Weyl exponentiated form of the commutation relations is described and investigated. One then arrives at the definition of Weyl systems, and it is shown how to recover from them the formulation in terms of self-adjoint operators which satisfy a generalized form of commutation relations. Further topics are the Heisenberg representation for temporal evolution and the generalized uncertainty relations. Unitary operators associated with symplectic linear transformations are then considered, and, within this framework, translations, rotations and the harmonic oscillator are considered. The Weyl programme is then reassessed. Lastly, the basic postulates of modern quantum theory are eventually studied: the probabilistic nature of the predictions of results of measurements; the correspondence between observables and self-adjoint operators on Hilbert spaces; the expected result of measuring an observable quantity; and the evolution of the state vector in systems which are not affected by any external influence. The chapter ends with an outline of rigged Hilbert space formalism and its applications. The commutator in wave mechanics In the first part of this book we studied wave mechanics within the framework of the Schrödinger equation.
In the usual formulation of quantum mechanics, groups of automorphisms of quantum states have ray representations by unitary and antiunitary operators on complex Hilbert space, in accordance with Wigner's theorem. In the phase-space formulation, they have real, true unitary representations in the space of square-integrable functions on phase space. Each such phase-space representation is a Weyl–Wigner product of the corresponding Hilbert space representation with its contragredient, and these can be recovered by 'factorizing' the Weyl–Wigner product. However, not every real, unitary representation on phase space corresponds to a group of automorphisms, so not every such representation is in the form of a Weyl–Wigner product and can be factorized. The conditions under which this is possible are examined. Examples are presented.
When solving problems involving quantum mechanical systems, it is frequently desirable to find the matrix elements of a unitary representation
T of a real algebraic Lie group
G. This requires defining an inner product on the Hilbert space
mathbbH that carries the representation
T. In the case where the representation is determined by a representation of a subgroup containing the lowest weight vector of
T, this can be achieved through the coherent state construction. In both the scalar and vector coherent state methods, the process of finding the overlaps can be simplified by introducing the coherent state triplet (
mathfrakFmathbbHD,
mathbbHD,
mathfrakFmathfrakHD) of Bargmann spaces. Coherent state wave functions -- the elements of
mathfrakFmathbbHD and of
mathfrakFmathbbHD -- are used to define the inner product on
mathbbHD in a way that simplifies the calculation of the overlaps. This inner product and the group action
Gamma of
G on
mathfrakFmathbbHD are used to formulate expressions for the matrix elements of
T with coefficients from the given subrepresentation.\n\nThe process of finding an explicit expression for
Gamma relies on matrix factorizations in the complexification of
G even though the representation
T does not extend to the complexification. It will be shown that these factorizations are, in fact, justified, that the overlaps and
Gamma action can be expressed in terms of the given subrepresentation, and that it is possible to find numerical values for the inner product in
mathbbH. The scalar and vector coherent state methods will both be applied to Sp(
n) and Sp(
n,mathbbR).
The conventional quantization of the harmonic oscillator in terms of operators Q and P can be implemented with the help of irreducible unitary representations of the Heisenberg-Weyl group which acts transitively and effectively on the simply connected classical phase space S q,p ≊ 2 . In the description of the harmonic oscillator in terms of angle and action variables ϕ and I the associated phase space S ϕ,I corresponds to the multiply connected punctured plane 2 – {0}, on which the 3-dimensional symplectic group Sp(2, ) acts transitively, leaving the origin invariant. As this group contains the compact subgroup U (1) it has infinitely many covering groups. In the here relevant irreducible unitary representations (positive discrete series) the self-adjoint generator K o of U (l) represents the classical action variable I . It has the possible spectra n + k, n = 0,1,...; k > 0, where k depends on the covering group. This implies different possible spectra for the action variable Hamiltonian ℏωK 0 of the harmonic oscillator. On the other hand, expressing the operators Q and P (non-linearly) in terms of the three generators K 0 etc. of Sp (2, ) leads to the usual framework. Possible physical (experimental) implications and generalizations to higher dimensions are discussed briefly.