Symmetries and Their Consequences

Edward B. Manoukian

Rocco Schiavilla

Construction ofunitary operators inducing space and time translations, and rotations; the anti-unitary operator inducing time reversal; consequences of invariance under a symmetry transformation; periodic potentials and Bloch waves; the Kronig-Penney model; the ammonia molecule and broken parity symmetry; consequences of time reversal invariance on the scattering amplitude of spinless particles; Kramers degeneracy.

Ángel L. Corps, J. Dukelsky, Armando Relaño

We present a theory characterizing the phases emerging as a consequence of continuous symmetry-breaking in quantum and classical systems. In symmetry-breaking phases, dynamics is restricted due to the existence of a set of conserved charges derived from the order parameter of the phase transition. Their expectation values are determined by the privileged direction appearing in the ordered phase as a consequence of symmetry breaking, and thus they can be used to determine whether this direction is well defined or has quantum fluctuations. Our theory is numerically exemplified via the two-dimensional limit of the vibron model, a fully connected system invariant under a rotation operator which generates the continuous symmetry-breaking.

Stefan Flörchinger

Stefan Floerchinger

Response theory describes the reaction of observales to perturbations in external fields. We review this formalism for quantum fiels in isolation that have unitary time evolution. An emphasis is put on consequences of causality and the resulting spectral representations for linear and nonlinear response functions, on functional techniques and generating functionals, including the description of the initial state, the evolution, and measurements. We review consequences of time reversal symmetry and relations for the statistics of work, and discuss a large class of quantum correlation functions, and their relation to response functions through fluctuation-dissipation relations. Consequences of conservation laws and gauge symmetries are mentioned briefly.