Classical particle mechanics on curved spaces is related to the flow of ideal fluids, by a dual interpretation of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. As in second quantization, the procedure relates the description of a system with a finite number of degrees of freedom to one with infinitely many degrees of freedom. In some two-dimensional fluid mechanics models a duality transformation between the velocity potential and the stream function can be performed relating sources and sinks in one model to vortices in the other. The particle mechanics counterpart of the dual theory is reconstructed. In the quantum theory the strength of sources and sinks, as well as vorticity are quantized; for the duality between theories to be preserved these quantization conditions must be related.
Classical particle mechanics on curved spaces is related to the flow of ideal fluids, by a dual interpretation of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. As in second quantization, the procedure relates the description of a system with a finite number of degrees of freedom to one with infinitely many degrees of freedom. In some two-dimensional fluid mechanics models a duality transformation between the velocity potential and the stream function can be performed relating sources and sinks in one model to vortices in the other. The particle mechanics counterpart of the dual theory is reconstructed. In the quantum theory the strength of sources and sinks, as well as vorticity are quantized; for the duality between theories to be preserved these quantization conditions must be related.
The classical mechanics of a finite number of degrees of freedom requires a symplectic structure on phase space [Formula: see text], but it is independent of any complex structure. On the contrary, the quantum theory is intimately linked with the choice of a complex structure on [Formula: see text]. When the latter is a complex-analytic manifold admitting just one complex structure, there is a unique quantization whose classical limit is [Formula: see text]. Then the notion of coherence is the same for all observers. However, when [Formula: see text] admits two or more nonbiholomorphic complex structures, there is one different quantization per different complex structure on [Formula: see text]. The lack of analyticity in transforming between nonbiholomorphic complex structures can be interpreted as the loss of quantum-mechanical coherence under the corresponding transformation. Observers using one complex structure perceive as coherent the states that other observers, using a different complex structure, do not perceive as such. This is the notion of a quantum-mechanical duality transformation: the relativity of the notion of a quantum.
The Hamilton-Jacobi equation of classical mechanics is approached as a model reduction of conservative particle mechanics where the velocity degrees-of-freedom are eliminated. This viewpoint allows an extension of the association of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation from conservative systems to general Newtonian particle systems involving non-conservative forces, including dissipative ones. A geometric optics approximation leads to a dissipative Schrödinger equation, with the expected limiting form when the associated classical force system involves conservative forces.
This Festschrift in honour of J. A. de Azcarraga gives an introduction to the concept of duality, i.e., to the relativity of the notion of a quantum, in the context of the quantum mechanics of a finite number of degrees of freedom. Although the concept of duality arises in string and M--theory, Vafa has argued that it should also have a counterpart in quantum mechanics, before moving on to second quantisation, fields, strings and branes. We illustrate our analysis with the case when classical phase space is complex projective space, but our conclusions can be generalised to other complex, symplectic phase spaces, both compact and noncompact.
We expose the Schrödinger quantum mechanics with traditional applications to Hydrogen atom. We discuss carefully the experimental and theoretical background for the introduction of the Schrödinger, Pauli and Dirac equations, as well as for the Maxwell equations. We explain in detail all basic theoretical concepts. We explain all details of the calculations and mathematical tools: Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism for the systems with finite degree of freedom and for fields, Geometric Optics, the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and WKB approximation, Noether theory of invariants including the theorem on currents, four conservation laws (energy, momentum, angular momentum and charge), Lie algebra of angular momentum and spherical functions, scattering theory (limiting amplitude principle and limiting absorption principle), the Lienard-Wiechert formulas, Lorentz group and Lorentz formulas, Pauli theorem and relativistic covariance of the Dirac equation, etc. We give a detailed oveview of the conceptual development of the quantum mechanics, and expose main achievements of the ``old quantum mechanics'' in the form of exercises. One of our basic aim in writing this book, is an open and concrete discussion of the problem of a mathematical description of the following two fundamental quantum phenomena: i) Bohr's quantum transitions and ii) de Broglie's wave-particle duality. Both phenomena cannot be described by autonomous linear dynamical equations, and we give them a new mathematical treatment related with recent progress in the theory of global attractors of nonlinear hyperbolic PDEs.
In this paper, a formalism for quantization is developed which starts out from the Hamilton-Jacobi expression, $\frac{\ensuremath{\partial}S}{\ensuremath{\partial}t}+H(\frac{\ensuremath{\partial}S}{\ensuremath{\partial}q}, q)$, and which leads to its usual quantum-mechanical operator equivalent by means of straightforward algebra. The quantum-mechanical operator equivalents of H and p are then seen to be the consequence of assigning a number of equally probable classical paths to a dynamical system.
Within the framework of the individuality interpretation of quantum theory (QT), the basic equations of QT cannot be derived from the basic equations of classical mechanics (CM). The unbridgeable gap between CM and QT is given by the fact that a certain system which is described in CM by a finite number of degrees of freedom requires an infinite number in QT. The standard quantization method, which is conceptually closely linked to the individuality interpretation, is limited to finding structural similarities between observables and operators. The fundamental question \emph{why} one must move from a finite number to an infinite number of degrees of freedom, remains unanswered. This gap can only be closed if probabilistic aspects are already taken into account in the classical area. This may be done by taking the uncertainty in initial conditions into account. In this probabilistic version of mechanics (PM), a system is mathematically described as an ensemble, with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, thus bridging the gap mentioned above. This step then enables the reconstruction of QT, in particular the derivation of the Schrödinger equation, from PM. This work is the third in a series of works in which this program is carried out. The method used here differs from the previous one and allows a better understanding of the structural differences between classical physics and QT. The derivation of the Schrödinger equation essentially takes place in two steps: a projection from phase space to configuration space and a linearization. Some contradictions of the individuality interpretation are analyzed and eliminated from the point of view of the ensemble interpretation.