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arXiv:hep-th/9406167 · Physical Review A

Canonical transformations and path-integral measures

Mark S. Swanson

Published Dec 1, 1994• 7 citations

Abstract

This paper is a generalization of previous work on the use of classical canonical transformations to evaluate Hamiltonian path integrals for quantum-mechanical systems. Relevant aspects of the Hamiltonian path integral and its measure are discussed, and used to show that the quantum-mechanical version of the classical transformation does not leave the measure of the path-integral invariant, instead inducing an anomaly. The relation to operator techniques and ordering problems is discussed, and special attention is paid to incorporation of the initial and final states of the transition element into the boundary conditions of the problem. Classical canonical transformations are developed to render an arbitrary power potential cyclic. The resulting Hamiltonian is analyzed as a quantum system to show its relation to known quantum-mechanical results. A perturbative argument is used to suppress ordering-related terms in the transformed Hamiltonian in the event that the classical canonical transformation leads to a nonquadratic cyclic Hamiltonian. The associated anomalies are analyzed to yield general methods to evaluate the path integral's prefactor for such systems. The methods are applied to several systems, including linear and quadratic potentials, the velocity-dependent potential, and the time-dependent harmonic oscillator.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.50.4538

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This paper is a generalization of previous work on the use of classical canonical transformations to evaluate Hamiltonian path integrals for quantum-mechanical systems. Relevant aspects of the Hamiltonian path integral and its measure are discussed, and used to show that the quantum-mechanical version of the classical transformation does not leave the measure of the path-integral invariant, instead inducing an anomaly. The relation to operator techniques and ordering problems is discussed, and special attention is paid to incorporation of the initial and final states of the transition element into the boundary conditions of the problem. Classical canonical transformations are developed to render an arbitrary power potential cyclic. The resulting Hamiltonian is analyzed as a quantum system to show its relation to known quantum-mechanical results. A perturbative argument is used to suppress ordering-related terms in the transformed Hamiltonian in the event that the classical canonical transformation leads to a nonquadratic cyclic Hamiltonian. The associated anomalies are analyzed to yield general methods to evaluate the path integral's prefactor for such systems. The methods are applied to several systems, including linear and quadratic potentials, the velocity-dependent potential, and the time-dependent harmonic oscillator.

Anomalies associated with canonical transformations in quantum-mechanical systems are examined in the context of the path-integral formalism, where they appear as nontrivial Jacobians. The quantum-mechanical anomaly, for the case of a transformation to cyclic coordinates, is shown to be equivalent to a term in the action, similar to a gauge field configuration, whose presence maintains self-adjointness of the Hamiltonian or corrects the phase-space measure of the path integral to reflect the bound-state spectrum of the original problem. Various nonperturbative aspects of quantum-mechanical transition amplitudes are calculated by using classical solutions to Hamilton's equations of motion combined with the anomaly generated by the canonical transformation.

We consider general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian systems which are connected by canonical transformations and give the same classical equations of motion. In those systems, we demonstrate that canonical transformations in classical mechanics correspond to unitary transformations in quantum mechanics. The wave functions and the propagators are evaluated using the invariant operator method. However, the values of some functions of the canonical variables q and p are not equal to the values of the same functions of the other canonical variables Q and P, but the values of the functions of q and the kinetic momentum

{\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{k}}

are equal to those of the other Q and

{\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{k}}

in classical mechanics. We prove that these also hold in the quantum treatment. The uncertainty relations of momentum and position are evaluated for the two Hamiltonians.

We discuss how the Hamiltonian changes in quantum canonical transformations. To the operator $\stackrel{^}{\mathcal{H}}(\stackrel{^}{p},\stackrel{^}{q})$ one can associate (in a given ordering rule) a

c

-number function

\mathcal{H}(p,q)

. It is this function that appears in the action of the phase-space path integral. A quantum canonical transformation $\stackrel{^}{\mathcal{H}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\stackrel{^}{\mathcal{H}}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ can now be expressed as an integral transformation ${\mathcal{H}}^{\ensuremath{'}}(\overline{p},\overline{q})=\ensuremath{\int}\mathrm{dp}\mathrm{dq}\mathcal{T}(\overline{p},\overline{q};p,q)\mathcal{H}(p,q)$. The kernel

\mathcal{T}

is constructed explicitly for point transformations and for the $p=\ensuremath{-}\overline{q}$,

q=\overline{p}

reflection by studying changes of variables in the path integral. The ordering dependence of

\mathcal{T}

is displayed. The invariance of commutation rules is also discussed.

General Hamiltonian systems related by linear canonical transformations, which are combinations of the scale and gauge transformations, are considered. Using path integrals, it is proven that each quantum Hamiltonian can be expressed by the classical Hamiltonian whose canonical variables are replaced by their corresponding quantum operators. The relation between the Schr\"odinger solution and the propagator for the transformed (new) and for the original (old) systems are evaluated by applying the unitary operator which describes the linear relationship between their quantum operators as the corresponding relations between their classical forms. It is shown that the uncertainty relations between the canonical position and momentum operator depend on the gauge function chosen, and satisfy Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The uncertainty relations between the canonical position and kinetic momentum operator (distinguished from the momentum operator) do not depend on the gauge function chosen, and may not satisfy Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. By the gauge transformation, a single system has innumerable Schr\"odinger equations, but the quantum averages of the function of the position and kinetic momentum operators are invariant for all solutions, as for classical cases.