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Journal of Mathematical Physics

Some Mathematical Properties of Oscillator Phase Operators

E. C. Lerner, Huajun Huang, G. E. Walters

Published May 1, 1970• 87 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A general definition of ``cosine'' and ``sine'' operators, C and S, for harmonic oscillator phase is proposed and its consequences examined. An important feature of the spectral analysis is the ``chain sequence'' condition which ensures that C and S have unit norm. The (nonunitary) operator U = C + iS is shown to be an annihilation-type operator whose spectral properties bear a remarkable analogy to those of the standard annihilation operator, although its spectrum fills the unit circle rather than the entire complex plane. Statistical properties of the eigenstates of U are discussed briefly.

DOI
10.1063/1.1665310

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A general definition of cosine'' and sine'' operators, C and S, for harmonic oscillator phase is proposed and its consequences examined. An important feature of the spectral analysis is the ``chain sequence'' condition which ensures that C and S have unit norm. The (nonunitary) operator U = C + iS is shown to be an annihilation-type operator whose spectral properties bear a remarkable analogy to those of the standard annihilation operator, although its spectrum fills the unit circle rather than the entire complex plane. Statistical properties of the eigenstates of U are discussed briefly.
Eigenstates of the annihilation type operator U = C + iS, where C and S are the ``cosine'' and ``sine'' operators for harmonic oscillator phase, are shown to be closely related to thermal equilibrium states of the oscillator and to provide a new interpretation of the thermal equilibrium density operator. The problem of creating such states is considered and a general theorem is established leading to the construction of interaction Hamiltonians which transform the eigenstates of U among themselves and, in particular, create them from the oscillator ground state. These Hamiltonians lead to representations of the Lie algebras of O(2,1) and O(3). It is suggested that the mathematical technique used, in which generalized U-type operators provide the link between a group and its representations, has its own intrinsic interest for the study of Lie groups.
For a quantized mode of the radiation field, the operator whose classical analog is the ordinary phase factor of the mode amplitudes has been shown to be nonunitary. A mathematically rigorous formulation of the phase P is given on the basis of the canonical factorization theorem. All other phase quantities are defined in terms of P and P†. Many of the seemingly complex features of phase operators are found to be simple direct consequences of the general mathematical theory. It is easily seen that P is a partial isometry but not a unitary operator. In contrast to the amplitude operator, it is found that P is not a spectral operator and the set of phase eigenstates is not complete. Mathematically precise operator relations, including the rigorous statement of commutation rules, are developed. For each of the phase operators, a complete spectral analysis is given, with the nature of the spectrum, spectral decomposition (if any), and eigenstates shown explicitly. The values of the various phase operators are compared between phase states and coherent states.
The quantum-mechanical description of phase and angle variables is reviewed, with emphasis on the proper mathematical description of these coordinates. The relations among the operators and state vectors under consideration are clarified in the context of the Heisenberg uncertainty relations. The familiar case of the azimuthal angle variable $\ensuremath{\phi}$ and its "conjugate" angular momentum Lz{L}_{z}Lz​ is discussed. Various pitfalls associated with the periodicity problem are avoided by employing periodic variables ($sin\ensuremath{\phi}$ and $cos\ensuremath{\phi}$ to describe the phase variable. Well-defined uncertainty relations are derived and discussed. A detailed analysis of the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator excited in coherent states is given. A detailed analysis of the simple harmonic oscillator is given. The usual assumption that a (Hermitian) phase operator $\ensuremath{\varphi}$ (conjugate to the number operator NNN) exists is shown to be erroneous. However, cosine and sine operators CCC and SSS exist and are the appr\'opriate phase variables. A Poisson bracket argument using action-angle (rather JJJ, $cos\ensuremath{\varphi}$, $sin\ensuremath{\varphi}$) variables is used to deduce CCC and SSS. The spectra and eigenfunctions of these operators are investigated, along with the important "phase-difference" periodic variables. The properties of the oscillator variables in the various types of states are analyzed with special attention to the uncertainty relations and the transition to the classical limit. The utility of coherent states as a basis for the description of the evolution of the density matrix is emphasized. In this basis it is easy to identify the classical Liouville equation in action-angle variables along with quantum-mechanical "corrections." Mention is made of possible physical applications to superfluid systems.
The quantization of phase is still an open problem. In the approach of Susskind and Glogower so called cosine and sine operators play a fundamental role. Their eigenstates in the Fock representation are related with the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. Here we introduce more general cosine and sine operators whose eigenfunctions in the Fock basis are related in a similar way with arbitrary orthogonal polynomial sets on the intervall [-1,1]. To each polynomial set defined in terms of a weight function there corresponds a pair of cosine and sine operators. Depending on the symmetry of the weight function we distinguish generalized or extended operators. Their eigenstates are used to define cosine and sine representations and probability distributions. We consider also the inverse arccosine and arcsine operators and use their eigenstates to define cosine-phase and sine-phase distributions, respectively. Specific, numerical and graphical results are given for the classical orthogonal polynomials and for particular Fock and coherent states.
This is a pedagogical paper where we present a physically motivated approach to introduce the coherent states of a harmonic oscillator from which it is simple to rigorously derive their mathematical definition. We do this in two different ways that turn out to be equivalent but emphasize two related but different aspects of classicality. First, we analyze which are the quantum states that are the closest one can get to a point in phase space and demonstrate the validity of the following theorem: (i) The product of the uncertainty in position and that of momentum saturates the bound imposed by Heisenberg uncertainty relations for all times if and only if the state is an eigenstate of the annihilation operator. Second, we analyze the way in which the difference between the expectation value of the energy and the energy associated with the expectation values of position and momentum depends on the state, and show the validity of the following theorem (ii) the difference between the expectation value of the energy and the energy associated with the expectation values is minimal if and only if the state is an eigenstate of the annihilation operator. We also show that the reason why coherent states are chosen as the most classical ones by the decoherence process induced by coupling the particle to an environment in the standard Quantum Brownian motion model, is precisely due to the validity of the two above theorems.