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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Quantum mechanical ordering problem for observables which are linear in momentum

F. J. Bloore, I. R. Ghobrial

Published Dec 1, 1975• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Starting with Segal's postulates (1960) for quantum mechanics, augmented by the postulate that the commutators of the free Hamiltonian with position observables are canonical, the authors prove that the quantum mechanical observable Q(X), which corresponds to the function C(X) identical to X i (q)p i on phase space in classical mechanics, is equal to the anticommutator 1 / 2 (Q(X i ),Q(p i )). In coordinate free language, this means the Q( phi X)= 1 / 2 (Q( phi ),Q(X)) for any scalar field phi and any vector field X on the configuration space.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/8/12/004

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Starting with Segal's postulates (1960) for quantum mechanics, augmented by the postulate that the commutators of the free Hamiltonian with position observables are canonical, the authors prove that the quantum mechanical observable Q(X), which corresponds to the function C(X) identical to X i (q)p i on phase space in classical mechanics, is equal to the anticommutator 1 / 2 (Q(X i ),Q(p i )). In coordinate free language, this means the Q( phi X)= 1 / 2 (Q( phi ),Q(X)) for any scalar field phi and any vector field X on the configuration space.
Based on (i) the spectral resolution definition of the momentum operator, (ii) the linearity of correspondence between physical observables and quantum Hermitian operators, (iii) the definition of conjugate coordinate-momentum variables in classical mechanics, and (iv) the invariance of the classical Hamiltonian to canonical transformations (transformations that change from one set of conjugate variables to another), we show that the $[\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{x},\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{p}]$ coordinate-momentum commutator must have the value ihihih where hhh is a real nonzero number (which we can identify with the experimentally determined $\ensuremath{\hbar}$). The results are then extended to include all generalized coordinates and their conjugate momenta as well as the Cartesian special-relativistic case.
Hamilton's principle of stationary action is formulated in classical mechanics using the Lie algebra of Schouten concomitants of symmetric contravariant tensor fields on the configuration space of the system. Such a formulation is global and coordinate free. It is shown that a directly parallel formulation holds in quantum mechanics so long as all the Poisson brackets involved can be replaced in the quantum version by commutators in a canonical way. An example (where the Hamiltonian possesses a velocity dependent potential) in which this cannot be done is discussed and concluded that in this case the action is stationary only for a subclass of variations, namely those corresponding to Killing vector fields on the configuration manifold.
We construct the algebra of operators acting on the Hilbert spaces of Quantum Mechanics for systems of N identical particles from the field operators acting in the Fock space of Quantum Field Theory by providing the explicit relation between the position and momentum operators acting in the former spaces and the field operators acting on the latter.This is done in the context of the non-interacting Klein-Gordon field.It may not be possible to extend the procedure to interacting field theories since it relies crucially on particle number conservation.We find it nevertheless important that such an explicit relation can be found at least for free fields.It also comes out that whatever statistics the field operators obey (either commuting or anticommuting), the position and momentum operators obey commutation relations.The construction of position operators raises the issue of localizability of particles in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, as the position operator for a single particle turns out to be the Newton-Wigner position operator.We make some clarifications on the interpretation of Newton-Wigner localized states and we consider the transformation properties of position operators under Lorentz transformations, showing that they do not transform as tensors, rather in a manner that preserves the canonical commutation relations.
We construct the algebra of operators acting on the Hilbert spaces of Quantum Mechanics for systems of N identical particles from the field operators acting in the Fock space of Quantum Field Theory by providing the explicit relation between the position and momentum operators acting in the former spaces and the field operators acting on the latter.This is done in the context of the non-interacting Klein-Gordon field.It may not be possible to extend the procedure to interacting field theories since it relies crucially on particle number conservation.We find it nevertheless important that such an explicit relation can be found at least for free fields.It also comes out that whatever statistics the field operators obey (either commuting or anticommuting), the position and momentum operators obey commutation relations.The construction of position operators raises the issue of localizability of particles in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, as the position operator for a single particle turns out to be the Newton-Wigner position operator.We make some clarifications on the interpretation of Newton-Wigner localized states and we consider the transformation properties of position operators under Lorentz transformations, showing that they do not transform as tensors, rather in a manner that preserves the canonical commutation relations.
Abstract The purpose of this article is to construct an explicit relation between the field operators in Quantum Field Theory and the relevant operators in Quantum Mechanics for a system of N identical particles, which are the symmetrised functions of the canonical operators of position and momentum, thus providing a clear relation between Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Mechanics. This is achieved in the context of the non-interacting Klein–Gordon field. Though this procedure may not be extendible to interacting field theories, since it relies crucially on particle number conservation, we find it nevertheless important that such an explicit relation can be found at least for free fields. It also comes out that whatever statistics the field operators obey (either commuting or anticommuting), the position and momentum operators obey commutation relations. The construction of position operators raises the issue of localizability of particles in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, as the position operator for a single particle turns out to be the Newton–Wigner position operator. We make some clarifications on the interpretation of Newton–Wigner localized states and we consider the transformation properties of position operators under Lorentz transformations, showing that they do not transform as tensors, rather in a manner that preserves the canonical commutation relations. From a complex Klein–Gordon field, position and momentum operators can be constructed for both particles and antiparticles.