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arXiv:gr-qc/0211065

The Geometric Origin of the Madelung Potential

D. H. Delphenich

Published Nov 19, 2002• 6 citations
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Abstract

Madelung's hydrodynamical forms of the Schrodinger equation and the Klein-Gordon equation are presented. The physical nature of the quantum potential is explored. It is demonstrated that the geometrical origin of the quantum potential is in the scalar curvature of the of the metric that defines the kinetic energy density for an extended particle and that the quantization of circulation (Bohr-Sommerfeld) is a consequence of associating an SO(2)-reduction of the Lorentz frame bundle with wave motion. The Madelung equations are then cast in a basis-free form in terms of exterior differential forms in such a way that they represent the equations for a timelike solution to the conventional wave equations whose rest mass density satisfies a differential equation of the "Klein-Gordon minus nonlinear term" type. The role of non-zero vorticity is briefly examined.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/0211065

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Madelung's hydrodynamical forms of the Schrodinger equation and the Klein-Gordon equation are presented. The physical nature of the quantum potential is explored. It is demonstrated that the geometrical origin of the quantum potential is in the scalar curvature of the of the metric that defines the kinetic energy density for an extended particle and that the quantization of circulation (Bohr-Sommerfeld) is a consequence of associating an SO(2)-reduction of the Lorentz frame bundle with wave motion. The Madelung equations are then cast in a basis-free form in terms of exterior differential forms in such a way that they represent the equations for a timelike solution to the conventional wave equations whose rest mass density satisfies a differential equation of the "Klein-Gordon minus nonlinear term" type. The role of non-zero vorticity is briefly examined.
The quantum hydrodynamic-like equations for two real variables (i.e., the phase and the amplitude of the wave function) of the relativistic Klein-Gordon equation are derived in the present paper. The paper also shows that in classical limit the hydrodynamic Klein-Gordon equations lead to the Madelung pseudo-potential [1] as well as to the quantum pseudo potential for a charged particle given by Janossy [2] and by Bialynicki et al [3]. The origin of the non-local interactions of quantum mechanics in the hydrodynamic model are discussed both for free and charged particles.
The Madelung equations express the Schrödinger equation as a continuity equation and modified Hamilton–Jacobi equation. These equations are equivalent to the Euler equations for a compressible, potential flow, when classical pressure per unit density is replaced by the quantum potential per unit mass. We extend this hydrodynamic interpretation by quantising a single, spinless, non-relativistic particle constrained to a surface wave with small slope. The wave is distinct from the wave function and, in order to reproduce the Schrödinger equation, it must satisfy the kinematic boundary condition for a free surface advected by twice the Madelung velocity field.
where m is the particle mass at rest, c is the speed of light, p is the particle momentum and U is a potential. The root in Eq. (1) complicates substantially the way of quantizing the relativistic motion. In the literature there are two important solutions of this problem: the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. Their complex mathematical structures and some problems with definition of the probability density make it difficult to extend these equations for description of relativistic quantum Brownian motion. Moreover, it is not clear if the non-relativistic energy ˆ t E i   and momentum p i   operators, used in quantizing of Eq. (1), are valid in the relativistic quantum mechanics as well. The present paper proposes an alternative approach via a relativistic Wigner-Klein-Kramers equation. The quantum Brownian motion is described by the Madelung quantum hydrodynamics [4] coupled to the Breit-Fermi Hamiltonian. According to the relativistic dynamics the stochastic Langevin equation for a classical relativistic particle moving in a classical non-relativistic environment acquires the form
Quantum hydrodynamics described by Madelung equations is analyzed in the framework of symplectic geometry i.e. in covariant phase space approach to geometric field theory. The pre-symplectic manifolds providing the phase spaces describing the Hamiltonian dynamics of quantum fluid are constructed from the set of all solutions of Madelung equations and their corresponding Lagrangian densities. The Madelung equations under consideration are the Madelung equations associated to Schroedinger equations (in the nonrelativistic case) and Madelung equations associated to Klein–Gordon equations (in the relativistic case). The cases where the coupling with electromagnetic fields is present are also considered here. Our symplectic formulation is different from that of [M. Spera, Moment map and gauge geometric aspects of the Schrodinger and Pauli equations, Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. 13 (2016) 1–36] in the choice of fundamental fields or variables. Here we regard density function [Formula: see text] and phase function [Formula: see text] not as canonical pair but as the fundamental fields of the theory. The Hamiltonian vector fields corresponding to an observable are obtained from the Hamiltonian equation generated by the observable. The Poisson bracket of two observables then is determined by the Hamiltonian vector fields associated to each observable. In general, the Poisson bracket of two observables is not unique due to the fact that every observable has more than one corresponding Hamiltonian vector field. It is pointed out that the Poisson bracket has a unique value over a certain subset of the set of all observables defined on the pre-symplectic manifold of the Madelung equation under consideration.
By linearizing the hydrodynamic equations associated with the Madelung transformation in the context of Bohmian dynamics, we derive an effective metric for the phase perturbation around a background state. We show that the metric previously obtained previously by the same authors arises naturally as a particular case of a more general structure, in which the complete functional variation of the quantum potential is retained and external classical potentials can be incorporated. This generalization preserves the dependence of the quantum potential on the density and its spatial derivatives, generating additional terms that introduce dispersive corrections and act as sources in the effective Klein-Gordon equation. To organize these contributions, we introduce differential operators that separate the local sector responsible for the effective geometry from the corrections associated with the complete functional structure of the quantum potential. We identify the conditions under which these additional terms become negligible, recovering homogeneous propagation and the effective geometry for the Gaussian wave packet of a free particle.
We consider a Finslerian-type geometrization of the nonrelativistic quantum mechanics in its hydrodynamical (Madelung) formulation, by also taking into account the effects of the presence of the electromagnetic fields on the particle motion. In the Madelung representation, the Schr\"odinger equation can be reformulated as the classical continuity and Euler equations of classical fluid mechanics in the presence of a quantum potential, representing the quantum hydrodynamical evolution equations. The equation of particle motion can then be obtained from a Lagrangian similarly to its classical counterpart. After the reparametrization of the Lagrangian, it turns out that the Finsler metric describing the geometric properties of quantum hydrodynamics is a Kropina metric. We present and discuss in detail the metric and the geodesic equations describing the geometric properties of the quantum motion in the presence of electromagnetic fields. As an application of the obtained formalism, we consider the Zermelo navigation problem in a quantum hydrodynamical system, whose solution is given by a Kropina metric. The case of the Finsler geometrization of the quantum hydrodynamical motion of spinless particles in the absence of electromagnetic interactions is also considered in detail, and the Zermelo navigation problem for this case is also discussed.