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Reviews of Modern Physics

Lie Group Dynamical Formalism and the Relation between Quantum Mechanics and Classical Mechanics

Thomas F. Jordan, E. C. G. Sudarshan

Published Oct 1, 1961• 81 citations
Publisher

Abstract

General structural features of dynamical theories can be exhibited in relations between classical and quantum mechanics; the essential structure is a Lie algebra of basic dynamical-variable fanctions providing transformationgroup infinitesimal generators. It is shown that the particular representation chosen is not important for the dynamical structure analysis by considering possibilities of transcribing classical and quantum mechanics each into the natural representation of the other. This leads to an outlining of the formal theory of generalized dynamics by constructing a class of Lie algebras including those of classical and quantum mechanics as special cases. (L.N.N.)

DOI
10.1103/revmodphys.33.515

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General structural features of dynamical theories can be exhibited in relations between classical and quantum mechanics; the essential structure is a Lie algebra of basic dynamical-variable fanctions providing transformationgroup infinitesimal generators. It is shown that the particular representation chosen is not important for the dynamical structure analysis by considering possibilities of transcribing classical and quantum mechanics each into the natural representation of the other. This leads to an outlining of the formal theory of generalized dynamics by constructing a class of Lie algebras including those of classical and quantum mechanics as special cases. (L.N.N.)
A formalism of quantum kinematics which rests on the regular representation of a Lie group is proposed. This representation leads to explicit canonical commutation relations for non-Abelian dynamical variables which, together with the Lie algebra, define the kinematic algebra. Generalised equations of motion for the group-parameter-dependent operators, as well as generalised wave equations, are introduced over the group manifold considered as a background arena. The formalism proposed affords a method of geometric quantisation stemming directly from the observed symmetries of a system.
A "minimal" generalization of Quantum Mechanics is proposed, where the Lagrangian or the action functional is a mapping from the (classical) states of a system to the Lie algebra of a general compact Lie group, and the wave function takes values in the corresponding group algebra. This formalism admits a probability interpretation and a suitable dynamics, but has no obvious classical correspondence. Allowing the Lagrangian or the action functional to take values in a general Lie algebra instead of only the real number field (actually the u(1) algebra) enlarges the extent of possible physical laws that can describe the real world. The generalized quantum dynamics of a point particle in a background gauge field is given as an example, which realizes the gauge invariance by a Wilson line structure and shows that some Schrodinger-like equation can be deduced within this formalism. Some possible developments of this formalism are also discussed.
We start by rewriting classical mechanics in a quantum mechanical fashion and point out that the only difference with quantum theory re- sides at one point. There is a classical analogon of the collapse of the wavefunction and an extension of the usual Born rule is proposed which might solve this problem. We work only with algebra’s over the real (com- plex) numbers, general number fields of finite characteristic allowing for finite dimensional representations of the commutation relations are not considered given that such fields are not well ordered and do not give rise to a well defined probability interpretation. Our theory generalizes however to discrete spacetimes and finite dimensional algebra’s. Looking at physics this way, spacetime itself distinguishes itself algebraically by means of well chosen commutation relations and there is further nothing special about it meaning it has also a particle interpretation just like any other dynamical variable. Likewise, there is no reason for the dynamics to be Hamiltonian and therefore we have a nonconservative formulation of quantum physics at hand. The harmonic oscillator (amongst few oth- ers) distinguishes itself because the algebra forms a finite dimensional Lie algebra; the classical and quantum (discrete) harmonic oscillator are stud- ied in a some more generality and examples are given which are neither classical, nor quantum.
Recently, it was shown that when reference frames are associated to quantum systems, the transformation laws between such quantum reference frames need to be modified to take into account the quantum and dynamical features of the reference frames. This led to a relational description of the phase space variables of the quantum system of which the quantum reference frames are part of. While such transformations were shown to be symmetries of the system's Hamiltonian, the question remained unanswered as to whether they enjoy a group structure, similar to that of the Galilei group relating classical reference frames in quantum mechanics. In this work, we identify the canonical transformations on the phase space of the quantum systems comprising the quantum reference frames, and show that these transformations close a group structure defined by a Lie algebra, which is different from the usual Galilei algebra of quantum mechanics. We further find that the elements of this new algebra are in fact the building blocks of the quantum reference frames transformations previously identified, which we recover. Finally, we show how the transformations between classical reference frames described by the standard Galilei group symmetries can be obtained from the group of transformations between quantum reference frames by taking the zero limit of the parameter that governs the additional noncommutativity introduced by the quantum nature of inertial transformations.
This article presents a mathematical framework for group-theoretical formalism of quantum mechanics and discusses the geometric quantization of the classical systems associated with a Lie group. The classical-quantum correspondence is realized by identifying quantum observable algebra and its classical analogue with the set of distributions with compact supports on a Lie group and on the associated Lie algebra respectively, both having a convolution-type associative algebraic structure. The general mathematical constructs are illustrated by studying systems associated with the Heisenberg-Weyl group. It is shown that the exponential mapping from Heisenberg-Weyl algebra to the corresponding Lie group gives Weyl quantization.
This paper discusses an application to the study of dynamics of the typical overcomplete, non-independent sets of unit vectors that characterize continuous-representation theory. It is shown in particular that the conventional, classical Hamiltonian dynamical formalism arises from an analysis of quantum dynamics restricted to an overcomplete, nonindependent set of vectors which lie in one-to-one correspondence with, and are labeled by, points in phase space. A generalized ``classical'' mechanics is then defined by the extremal of the quantum-mechanical action functional with respect to a restricted set of unit vectors whose c-number labels become the dynamical variables. This kind of ``classical'' formalism is discussed in some generality, and is applied not only to simple single-particle problems, but also to finite-spin degrees of freedom and to fermion field oscillators. These latter cases are examples of an important class of problems called exact, for which a study of the classical dynamics alone is sufficient to infer the correct quantum dynamics.