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Basics of PT -Symmetric Quantum Mechanics & Zeeman Effect

Preet Sharma

Published Sep 1, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this chapter, the principles of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics are applied to the time independent perturbation theory and compared with the Zeeman effect. In recent years, non-Hermitian quantum physics has gained a great deal of popularity in the quantum optics and condensed matter communities in order to model quantum systems with varying symmetries. There have been numerous studies on non-Hermitian Hamiltonians written for natural processes. Some studies have even expressed the hydrogen atom in a non-Hermitian basis. Here, we have also shown the condition under which the Zeeman Effect results will still be true even though the Hamiltonian taken into consideration is non-Hermitian.

DOI
10.9734/bpi/fraps/v9/6111c

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•Oct 31, 2008•36 citations
In this chapter, the principles of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics are applied to the time independent perturbation theory and compared with the Zeeman effect. In recent years, non-Hermitian quantum physics has gained a great deal of popularity in the quantum optics and condensed matter communities in order to model quantum systems with varying symmetries. There have been numerous studies on non-Hermitian Hamiltonians written for natural processes. Some studies have even expressed the hydrogen atom in a non-Hermitian basis. Here, we have also shown the condition under which the Zeeman Effect results will still be true even though the Hamiltonian taken into consideration is non-Hermitian.
The non-Hermitian aspect of Quantum Mechanics has been of great interest recently. There have been numerous studies on non-Hermitian Hamiltonians written for natural processes. Some studies have even expressed the hydrogen atom in a non-Hermitian basis. In this paper, the principles of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics are applied to the time independent perturbation theory and compared with the Zeeman effect. Here, we have also shown the condition under which the Zeeman Effect results will still be true even though the Hamiltonian taken into consideration is non-Hermitian.
The Non-Hermitian aspect of Quantum Mechanics has been of great interest recently. There have been numerous studies on non-Hermitian Hamiltonians written for natural processes. Some studies have even expressed the hydrogen atom in a non-Hermitian basis. In this paper the principles of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics is applied to both the time independent perturbation theory and to the time dependant theory to calculate the Stark effect. The principles of spherical harmonics has also been used to describe the development in the non-Hermitian case. Finally, the non-Hermitian aspect has been introduced to the well known Stark effect in quantum mechanics to find a condition in which the Stark effect will still be true even if a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is used. This study completes the understanding at a fundamental level to understand the well known Stark effect. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2020-01242 Full Text: PDF
In most introductory courses on quantum mechanics one is taught that the Hamiltonian operator must be Hermitian in order that the energy levels be real and that the theory be unitary (probability conserving). To express the Hermiticity of a Hamiltonian, one writes H = H †, where the symbol † denotes the usual Dirac Hermitian conjugation; that is, transpose and complex conjugate. In the past few years it has been recognized that the requirement of Hermiticity, which is often stated as an axiom of quantum mechanics, may be replaced by the less mathematical and more physical requirement of space – time reflection symmetry (𝒫𝒯 symmetry) without losing any of the essential physical features of quantum mechanics. Theories defined by non-Hermitian 𝒫𝒯-symmetric Hamiltonians exhibit strange and unexpected properties at the classical as well as at the quantum level. This paper explains how the requirement of Hermiticity can be evaded and discusses the properties of some non-Hermitian 𝒫𝒯-symmetric quantum theories.
For a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian H possessing a real spectrum, we introduce a canonical orthonormal basis in which a previously introduced unitary mapping of H to a Hermitian Hamiltonian h takes a simple form. We use this basis to construct the observables O α of the quantum mechanics based on H . In particular, we introduce pseudo-Hermitian position and momentum operators and a pseudo-Hermitian quantization scheme that relates the latter to the ordinary classical position and momentum observables. These allow us to address the problem of determining the conserved probability density and the underlying classical system for pseudo-Hermitian and in particular PT -symmetric quantum systems. As a concrete example we construct the Hermitian Hamiltonian h , the physical observables O α , the localized states and the conserved probability density for the non-Hermitian PT -symmetric square well. We achieve this by employing an appropriate perturbation scheme. For this system, we conduct a comprehensive study of both the kinematical and dynamical effects of the non-Hermiticity of the Hamiltonian on various physical quantities. In particular, we show that these effects are quantum mechanical in nature and diminish in the classical limit. Our results provide an objective assessment of the physical aspects of PT -symmetric quantum mechanics and clarify its relationship with both conventional quantum mechanics and classical mechanics.
One of the postulates of quantum mechanics is that the Hamiltonian is Hermitian, as this guarantees that the eigenvalues are real. Recently there has been an interest in asking if H†=HH^\dagger = HH†=H is a necessary condition, and has lead to the development of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics. This note shows that any finite physically acceptable non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is equivalent to doing ordinary quantum mechanics in a non-orthogonal basis. In particular, this means that there is no experimental distinction between PT-symmetric quantum mechanics and ordinary quantum mechanics for finite systems. In particular, the claim that PT-symmetric quantum mechanics allows for faster evolution than Hermitian quantum mechanics is shown to be a problem of physical interpretation.
A diagonalizable non-Hermitian Hamiltonian having a real spectrum may be used to define a unitary quantum system, if one modifies the inner product of the Hilbert space properly. We give a comprehensive and essentially self-contained review of the basic ideas and techniques responsible for the recent developments in this subject. We provide a critical assessment of the role of the geometry of the Hilbert space in conventional quantum mechanics to reveal the basic physical principle motivating our study. We then offer a survey of the necessary mathematical tools and elaborate on a number of relevant issues of fundamental importance. In particular, we discuss the role of the antilinear symmetries such as PT, the true meaning and significance of the charge operators C and the CPT-inner products, the nature of the physical observables, the equivalent description of such models using ordinary Hermitian quantum mechanics, the pertaining duality between local-non-Hermitian versus nonlocal-Hermitian descriptions of their dynamics, the corresponding classical systems, the pseudo-Hermitian canonical quantization scheme, various methods of calculating the (pseudo-) metric operators, subtleties of dealing with time-dependent quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonians and the path-integral formulation of the theory, and the structure of the state space and its ramifications for the quantum Brachistochrone problem. We also explore some concrete physical applications of the abstract concepts and tools that have been developed in the course of this investigation. These include applications in nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, quantum cosmology, electromagnetic wave propagation, open quantum systems, magnetohydrodynamics, quantum chaos, and biophysics.