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Canonical Transformations in Quantum Mechanics

Arlen Anderson

Published May 13, 1993• 100 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Quantum canonical transformations are defined algebraically outside of a Hilbert space context. This generalizes the quantum canonical transformations of Weyl and Dirac to include non-unitary transformations. The importance of non-unitary transformations for constructing solutions of the Schr\\"odinger equation is discussed. Three elementary canonical transformations are shown both to have quantum implementations as finite transformations and to generate, classically and infinitesimally, the full canonical algebra. A general canonical transformation can be realized quantum mechanically as a product of these transformations. Each transformation corresponds to a familiar tool used in solving differential equations, and the procedure of solving a differential equation is systematized by the use of the canonical transformations. Several examples are done to illustrate the use of the canonical transformations. [This is an extensively revised version of hep-th-9205080: the first third of the paper is new material; the notation has been simplified, and further discussion has been added to the remainder.]

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First a review is presented of the definition and properties of classical and quantum canonical transformations, from the point of view of a current program on the role of canonical transformations in quantum mechanics. The groups and the corresponding infinitesimal algebras are explored. The subgroup of point transformations (i.e. canonical transformations between pairs of conjugate observables, where one of a pair is function only of one of the other pair) is of special interest since it is a group of transformations for which classical and quantum mechanics follow each other. Only the group of inhomogeneous symplectic transformations has similar characteristics. Point transformations are treated in detail and a principal series of unitary representations is constructed. (auth)

•Jan 1, 1973•3 citations
Quantum canonical transformations are defined algebraically outside of a Hilbert space context. This generalizes the quantum canonical transformations of Weyl and Dirac to include non-unitary transformations. The importance of non-unitary transformations for constructing solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation is discussed. Three elementary canonical transformations are shown both to have quantum implementations as finite transformations and to generate, classically and infinitesimally, the full canonical algebra. A general canonical transformation can be realized quantum mechanically as a product of these transformations. Each transformation corresponds to a familiar tool used in solving differential equations, and the procedure of solving a differential equation is systematized by the use of the canonical transformations. Several examples are done to illustrate the use of the canonical transformations. [This is an extensively revised version of hep-th-9205080: the first third of the paper is new material; the notation has been simplified, and further discussion has been added to the remainder.]
Quantum canonical transformations are defined algebraically outside of a Hilbert space context. This generalizes the quantum canonical transformations of Weyl and Dirac to include non-unitary transformations. The importance of non-unitary transformations for constructing solutions of the Schrödinger equation is discussed. Three elementary canonical transformations are shown both to have quantum implementations as finite transformations and to generate, classically and infinitesimally, the full canonical algebra. A general canonical transformation can be realized quantum mechanically as a product of these transformations. Each transformation corresponds to a familiar tool used in solving differential equations, and
Three elementary canonical transformations are shown both to have quantum implementations as finite transformations and to generate, classically and infinitesimally, the full canonical algebra. A general canonical transformation can, in principle, be realized quantum mechanically as a product of these transformations. It is found that the intertwining of two super-Hamiltonians is equivalent to there being a canonical transformation between them. A consequence is that the procedure for solving a differential equation can be viewed as a sequence of elementary canonical transformations trivializing the super-Hamiltonian associated to the equation. It is proposed that the quantum integrability of a system is equivalent to the existence of such a sequence.
A canonical transformation changes variables such as coordinates and momenta to new variables preserving either the Poisson bracket or the commutation relations depending on whether the problem is classical or quantal respectively. Classically canonical transformations are well established as a powerful tool for solving differential equations. Quantum canonical transformations have been defined and used relatively recently because of the non-commutativeness of the quantum variables. Three elementary canonical transformations and their composite transformations have quantum implementations. Quantum canonical transformations have been mostly used in time-independent Schrodinger equations and a harmonic oscillator with time-dependent angular frequency is probably the only time-dependent problem solved by these transformations. In this work, we apply quantum canonical transformations to a harmonic oscillator in which both angular frequency and equilibrium position are time-dependent.
We test the idea that transformations which, at the classical level, can be interpreted as evolutions are represented within quantum mechanics by unitary operators. To this end, we consider non-trivial canonical transformations which leave invariant the form of the Hamilton function of a system. We demonstrate that infinite families of such transformations exist for a variety of familiar conservative systems of one degree of freedom. We show how the precise form of integral equations for the stationary state wavefunctions implied by the existence of these canonical transformations can be pinned down by exploiting the algebra of the transformations and a symmetry of their generating functions. We recover several integral equations found in the literature on standard special functions of mathematical physics. We find that when one of the classical canonical transformations we consider is non-linear, its quantum implementation is non-unitary. We end with some comments on the implications of our findings for semiclassical studies and a brief discussion relevant to string theory of the generalization to scalar field theories in 1 + 1 dimensions.
In the present paper we analyze the representations in quantum mechanics of classical canonical transformations that are nonbijective, i.e., not one-to-one onto. We take as the central example the canonical transformation that changes the Hamiltonian of a one-dimensional oscillator of frequency κ−1 into one of frequency k−1 where κ, k are relatively prime integers. For the particular case k=1, the mapping of the original phase space (x,p) onto the new one (x̄, p̄) is κ to 1 and the equivalent points in (x,p) are related by a cyclic group 𝒞κ of linear canonical transformations. When formulating this problem in Bargmann Hilbert space, the canonical transformation can be related to the conformal transformation w=zκ, which again is κ to 1 and where a group 𝒞κ also appears. This cyclic group proves fundamental for the determination of representations of the conformal transformation in Bargmann Hilbert space. To begin with, it suggests that while we can take in the original Bargmann Hilbert space a single component function, in the new Bargmann Hilbert space we must take a κ component one. In this way we can map in a one-to-one fashion the states and operators in the old and new Bargmann Hilbert spaces. When translating these results to ordinary Hilbert space, we get in an unambiguous way the quantization of the observables appearing in the equations that determine the representation of the classical canonical transformation relating oscillators of frequencies κ−1 and k−1. Furthermore, we also get the solutions of these equations, and the resulting representation is unitary. While our discussion is restricted to the problem mentioned above, in the concluding section we indicate our surmise for deriving systematically the unitary representation in quantum mechanics of arbitrary canonical transformations.
First a review is presented of the definition and properties of classical and quantum canonical transformations, from the point of view of a current program on the role of canonical transformations in quantum mechanics. The groups and the corresponding infinitesimal algebras are explored. The subgroup of point transformations (i.e. canonical transformations between pairs of conjugate observables, where one of a pair is function only of one of the other pair) is of special interest since it is a group of transformations for which classical and quantum mechanics follow each other. Only the group of inhomogeneous symplectic transformations has similar characteristics. Point transformations are treated in detail and a principal series of unitary representations is constructed. (auth)