We present examples of many-body Wigner quantum systems. The position and the momentum operators RA and PA, A=1,…,n+1, of the particles are noncanonical and are chosen so that the Heisenberg and the Hamiltonian equations are identical. The spectrum of the energy with respect to the center of mass is equidistant and has finite number of energy levels. The composite system is spread in a small volume around the center of mass and within it the geometry is noncommutative. The underlying statistics is an exclusion statistics.
We present examples of many-body Wigner quantum systems. The position and the momentum operators RA and PA, A=1,…,n+1, of the particles are noncanonical and are chosen so that the Heisenberg and the Hamiltonian equations are identical. The spectrum of the energy with respect to the center of mass is equidistant and has finite number of energy levels. The composite system is spread in a small volume around the center of mass and within it the geometry is noncommutative. The underlying statistics is an exclusion statistics.
Following the ideas of Wigner, we quantize noncanonically a system of two nonrelativistic point particles, interacting via a harmonic potential. The center of mass phase-space variables are quantized in a canonical way, whereas the internal momentum and coordinates are assumed to satisfy relations, which are essentially different from the canonical commutation relations. As a result, the operators of the internal Hamiltonian, the relative distance, the internal momentum, and the orbital momentum commute with each other. The spectrum of these operators is finite. In particular, the distance between the constituents is preserved in time and can take at most four different values. The orbital momentum is either zero or one (in units ℏ/2). The operators of the coordinates do not commute with each other and, therefore, the position of any one of the constituents cannot be localized; the particles are smeared with a certain probability in a finite space volume, which moves together with the center of mass. In the limit ℏ→0 the constituents ‘‘fall’’ into their center of mass and the composite system behaves as a free point particle.
A noncanonical quantum system, consisting of two nonrelativistic particles, interacting via a harmonic potential, is considered. The center-of-mass position and momentum operators obey the canonical commutation relations, whereas the internal variables are assumed to be the odd generators of the Lie superalgebra sl(1,2). This assumption implies a set of constraints in the phase space, which are explicitly written in the paper. All finite-dimensional irreducible representations of sl(1,2) are considered. Particular attention is paid to the physical representations, i.e., the representations corresponding to Hermitian position and momentum operators. The properties of the physical observables are investigated. In particular, the operators of the internal Hamiltonian, the relative distance, the internal momentum, and the orbital momentum commute with each other. The spectrum of these operators is finite. The distance between the constituents is preserved in time. It can take no more than three different values. For any non-negative integer or half-integer l there exists a representation, where the orbital momentum is l (in units of 2ℏ). The position of any one of the particles cannot be localized, since the operators of the coordinates do not commute with each other. The constituents are smeared with a certain probability within a finite surface, which moves with a constant velocity together with the center of mass.
A system of N non-canonical dynamically free 3D harmonic oscillators is studied. The position and the momentum operators (PM-operators) of the system do not satisfy the canonical commutation relations (CCRs). Instead they obey the weaker postulates for the oscillator to be a Wigner quantum system. In particular the PM-operators fulfil the main postulate, which is due to Wigner: they satisfy the equations of motion (the Hamiltonian's equations) and the Heisenberg equations. One of the relevant features is that the coordinate (the momentum) operators do not commute, but instead their squares do commute. As a result the space structure of the basis states corresponds to pictures when each oscillating particle is measured to occupy with equal probability only finite number of points, typically the eight vertices of a parallelepiped. The state spaces are finite-dimensional, the spectrum of the energy is finite with equally spaced energy levels. An essentially new feature is that the angular momenta of all particles are aligned. Therefore there exists a strong interaction or correlation between the particles, which is not of dynamical, but of statistical origin. Another relevant feature is that the standard deviations of, say, the k-th coordinate and the momenta of α-th is $ Δ\hat R_{αk} Δ\hat P_{αk} \le {p \hbar/{|N-3|}}~(~N\ne 3,~ p -$fixed positive integer), namely instead of uncertainty relations one has "certainty" relations. The underlying Lie superalgebraic structure of the oscillator is also relevant and will be explained in the context.
Noncanonical quantization schemes have been proposed in quantum physics long time ago. Recalling some of them I associate these investigations to the quantum mechanical im-plications of the canonically inequivalent Hamilton formula-tions of classical Newtonian dynamics. As the simplest illus-tration of such alternative Hamiltonian descriptions I consider one dimensional system of two particles interacting harmoni-cally. Description of the motion of their center of mass is stan-dard and guarantees the Galilean covariance but the internal motion is described as a noncanonical oscillator for which the Hamiltonian and the total energy are not related by a simple proportionality. Alternative Hamiltonians lead to alternative Poisson structures which may be considered as classical ana-logues of the noncanonical quantum commutation rules. Gen-Concepts of Physics, Vol. I (2004) 11 erated alternative quantizations are consistent with the same Heisenberg equations of motion, i.e., they satisfy the Wigner principle of quantization. For the one dimensional harmonic oscillator the simplest noncanonical algebraic description is given in terms of the Lie algebra so(p, q), p+ q = 3. In such a case the Hamiltonian is still a linear function while the energy is a quadratic polynomial of the main quantum number. This leads to nonstandard termodynamical properties obeyed by such a noncanonical oscillator. The 3-dimensional harmonic oscillator also has a noncanonical description given in terms of the simple Lie algebra, so(p, q), p+ q = 5 in the case under consideration. The most important physical consequence of such a description is the noncommutativity of the coordinate operators, interpreted to be an implication of the noncommu-tative geometry of the underlying spacetime.
An n -particle three-dimensional Wigner quantum oscillator model is constructed explicitly. It is non-canonical in that the usual coordinate and linear momentum commutation relations are abandoned in favour of Wigner's suggestion that Hamilton's equations and the Heisenberg equations are identical as operator equations. The construction is based on the use of Fock states corresponding to a family of irreducible representations of the Lie superalgebra sl (1|3 n ) indexed by an A -superstatistics parameter p . These representations are typical for p ⩾ 3 n but atypical for p < 3 n . The branching rules for the restriction from sl (1|3 n ) to gl (1) ⊕ so (3) ⊕ sl ( n ) are used to enumerate energy and angular momentum eigenstates. These are constructed explicitly and tabulated for n ⩽ 2. It is shown that measurements of the coordinates of the individual particles give rise to a set of discrete values defining nests in the three-dimensional configuration space. The fact that the underlying geometry is non-commutative is shown to have a significant impact on measurements of particle separation. In the atypical case, exclusion phenomena are identified that are entirely due to the effect of A -superstatistics. The energy spectrum and associated degeneracies are calculated for an infinite-dimensional realization of the Wigner quantum oscillator model obtained by summing over all p . The results are compared with those applying to the analogous canonical quantum oscillator.
The properties of a noncanonical 3D Wigner quantum oscillator, whose position and momentum operators generate the Lie superalgebra sl(1|3), are further investigated. Within each state space W(p), p=1,2,..., the energy E_q, q=0,1,2,3, takes no more than 4 different values. If the oscillator is in a stationary state ψ_q \in W(p) then measurements of the non-commuting Cartesian coordinates of the particle are such that their allowed values are consistent with it being found at a finite number of sites, called ``nests''. These lie on a sphere centered on the origin of fixed, finite radius \varrho_q. The nests themselves are at the vertices of a rectangular parallelepiped. In the typical cases (p>2) the number of nests is 8 for q=0 and 3, and varies from 8 to 24, depending on the state, for q=1 and 2. The number of nests is less in the atypical cases (p=1,2), but it is never less than two. In certain states in W(2) (resp. in W(1)) the oscillator is ``polarized'' so that all the nests lie on a plane (resp. on a line). The particle cannot be localized in any one of the available nests alone since the coordinates do not commute. The probabilities of measuring particular values of the coordinates are discussed. The mean trajectories and the standard deviations of the coordinates and momenta are computed, and conclusions are drawn about uncertainty relations. The rotational invariance of the system is also discussed.