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A Gauge Theory of Quantum Mechanics

J. M. Isidro, Maurice A. de Gosson

Published Aug 10, 2006• 3 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Abstract An Abelian gerbe is constructed over classical phase space. The 2–cocycles defining the gerbe are given by Feynman path integrals whose integrands contain the exponential of the Poincaré–Cartan form. The U(1) gauge group on the gerbe has a natural interpretation as the invariance group of the Schroedinger equation on phase space. 1

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Abstract An Abelian gerbe is constructed over classical phase space. The 2–cocycles defining the gerbe are given by Feynman path integrals whose integrands contain the exponential of the Poincaré–Cartan form. The U(1) gauge group on the gerbe has a natural interpretation as the invariance group of the Schroedinger equation on phase space. 1
Any quantum-mechanical system possesses a U(1) gerbe naturally defined on configuration space. Acting on Feynman's kernel exp(iS/ħ), this U(1) symmetry allows one to arbitrarily pick the origin for the classical action S, on a point-by-point basis on configuration space. This is equivalent to the statement that quantum mechanics is a U(1) gauge theory. Unlike Yang–Mills theories, however, the geometry of this gauge symmetry is not given by a fibre bundle, but rather by a gerbe. Since this gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken, an analogue of the Higgs mechanism must be present. We prove that a Heisenberg-like noncommutativity for the space coordinates is responsible for the breaking. This allows to interpret the noncommutativity of space coordinates as a Higgs mechanism on the quantum-mechanical U(1) gerbe.
The space of labels characterizing the elements of Schwinger’s basis for unitary quantum operators is endowed with a structure of symplectic type. This structure is embodied in a certain algebraic cocycle, whose main features are inherited by the symplectic form of classical phase space. In consequence, the label space may be taken as the quantum phase space: It plays, in the quantum case, the same role played by phase space in classical mechanics, some differences coming inevitably from its nonlinear character.