Fiber Bundles and Quantum Theory

Ted Bastin

Rathindra Nath Sen, Geoffrey L. Sewell

The theory of fiber bundles provides a natural setting for the description of macroscopic quantum systems, wherein their classical and quantum features are represented by actions on the base manifolds and the fibers, respectively, of the relevant bundles. We provide realizations of this picture in the description of (a) quasiparticle excitations of many-body systems, especially those in superfluid helium, (b) the interplay between the microscopic and macroscopic dynamics in certain irreversible processes, such as that of a laser, and (c) local thermodynamic equilibrium. In particular, (b) involves the treatment of a dynamical system which is defined on a vector bundle.

Thomas Filk A, Hartmann Römer

Patrick Moylan

Abstract The problem of describing a quantum mechanical system with symmetry by a fiber bundle is considered. The quantization of a fiber bundle is introduced. Fiber bundles for the Kepler problem and the rotator are constructed. The fiber bundle concept provides a new model for a physical system: it provides us with a model for an elementary particle with extension having integral values of spin.

Louis de Broglie

Borros Arneth

Quantum mechanics is traditionally formulated on complex Hilbert spaces, whereas gauge theories are formulated on fiber bundles equipped with connections and curvature. Despite the central role of geometry in modern physics, the Hilbert-space structure of quantum theory is usually postulated rather than derived. In this work, we investigate a differential-geometric formulation in which quantum states are represented as points on a coherence manifold characterized by a radial coherence coordinate and a holonomy-induced phase coordinate. The resulting geometry naturally admits the structure of a fiber bundle whose base space is associated with a coherence lattice and whose fiber corresponds to a phase circle. Within this framework, Hilbert spaces emerge as function spaces defined on the coherence manifold, while Schrödinger dynamics arise from the Laplace–Beltrami operator associated with the underlying geometry. The construction unifies concepts from geometric quantum mechanics, fiber-bundle gauge theory, holonomy, and coherence geometry within a common differential-geometric framework.