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arXiv:physics/0401070 · American Journal of Physics

Spin and statistics in classical mechanics

J. A. Morgan

Published Sep 22, 2004• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The spin–statistics connection is obtained for classical particles. The connection holds within pseudomechanics, a theory of particle motion that extends classical physics to include anticommuting Grassmann variables, and that exhibits classical analogs of both spin and statistics. Classical realizations of Lie groups are constructed in a canonical formalism generalized to include Grassmann variables. The theory of irreducible canonical realizations of the Poincaré group is developed in this framework, with particular emphasis on the rotation subgroup. The behavior of irreducible realizations under time inversion and charge conjugation is obtained. The requirement that the Lagrangian retain its form under the combined operation of charge conjugation and time reversal leads directly to the spin–statistics connection by an adaptation of Schwinger’s 1951 proof to irreducible canonical realizations of the Poincaré group of spin j: Generalized spin coordinates and momenta satisfy fundamental Poisson bracket relations for 2j even, and fundamental Poisson antibracket relations for 2j odd.

DOI
10.1119/1.1778392

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The spin–statistics connection is obtained for classical particles. The connection holds within pseudomechanics, a theory of particle motion that extends classical physics to include anticommuting Grassmann variables, and that exhibits classical analogs of both spin and statistics. Classical realizations of Lie groups are constructed in a canonical formalism generalized to include Grassmann variables. The theory of irreducible canonical realizations of the Poincaré group is developed in this framework, with particular emphasis on the rotation subgroup. The behavior of irreducible realizations under time inversion and charge conjugation is obtained. The requirement that the Lagrangian retain its form under the combined operation of charge conjugation and time reversal leads directly to the spin–statistics connection by an adaptation of Schwinger’s 1951 proof to irreducible canonical realizations of the Poincaré group of spin j: Generalized spin coordinates and momenta satisfy fundamental Poisson bracket relations for 2j even, and fundamental Poisson antibracket relations for 2j odd.
The classical spin of a particle is essentially its angular momentum of rotation about an axis passing through its center of mass. The classical Poisson brackets are generalized to include spin for any system for which the rate of change of spin is given by $\frac{d\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{s}}{\mathrm{dt}}=\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{s}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}(\frac{\ensuremath{\partial}H}{\ensuremath{\partial}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{s}})$ where HHH is the Hamiltonian. In a previous paper, we showed that this equation is satisfied by the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian for a molecular system of electrons and nuclei interacting with an electromagnetic field. This Hamiltonian contains all of the fine-structure terms with the exception of the Lamb shift. Thus, our generalized Poisson brackets should apply to almost all molecular problems. Our generalized Poisson brackets are the same as those which Sudarshan and Mukunda derived by group-theoretic arguments for the direct product of a pure spin group with the group of transformations of generalized coordinates and their conjugate momenta.
A nonrelativistic proof of the spin-statistics theorem is given in terms of the field operators satisfying commutation and anticommutation relations, which are introduced here in the coordinate space as a means to build the permutation symmetry into the brackets of identical particles. An eigenvalue problem of a πππ-rotation for a product of two annihilation operators is combined with an analysis on its rotational property to prove the connection that the field operators for integral-spin and half-integral-spin particles obey the commutation and anticommutation relations, respectively.
In the first part of this series we have shown how the Schrodinger equation for a single particle and the corresponding non relativistic quantum observables can be obtained from a purely classical phonon model through the Newtonian equations of motion. In this work we focus instead on how the classical Hamiltonian formalism applied to the same phonon system allows to recover the feature of relativistic quantum mechanics for a single spinless particle. Using the classical nature of the phonon model, we naturally define continuous Poisson brackets between classical observables, which allows to recover the dynamics of such observables, i.e. the Ehrenfest relations associated to real-valued Klein-Gordon fields. The Poisson brackets also permits to obtain the generic form of constants of motions, thus generalizing the concept of inner products and momentum on Klein-Gordon fields. We then connect the formalism of real-valued classical functionals with that of hermitian operators and complex-valued wave functions. This is done through the introduction of a non-local complex-valued change of variables which allows to rewrite the real-valued Klein-Gordon equation in a form akin to the Schrodinger equation, and the classical observables as quantum expectation values. Then, we show how this change of variables allows to rewrite the classical Poisson brackets as commutators of hermitian operators. This points out the strict equivalence between the Heisenberg formalism and the formalism of classical Poisson bracket. Eventually, we illustrate how the Poisson brackets allows to recover the transformations of Poincare group in 1+1 dimension together with its algebra. The latter makes the link between the Lorentz invariant inner product of Mostafazadeh and the Casimir invariant associated to the mass of particle.
Using the method of canonical group quantization, we construct the angular momentum operators associated to configuration spaces with the topology of (i) a sphere and (ii) a projective plane. In the first case, the angular momentum operators derived this way are the quantum version of Poincaré's vector, i.e., the physically correct angular momentum operators for an electron coupled to the field of a magnetic monopole. In the second case, the operators one obtains represent the angular momentum operators of a system of two indistinguishable spin zero quantum particles in three spatial dimensions. The relevance of the proposed formalism for the progress in our understanding of the spin–statistics connection in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is discussed. Introduction The connection between the spin of quantum particles and the statistics they obey is a remarkable example of a simply stated physical fact without the recognition of which many physical phenomena (ranging from the stability of matter and the electronic configuration of atoms to Bose–Einstein condensation and superconductivity) would not have an explanation. Nevertheless, the simplicity of the assertion “integer spin particles obey Bose statistics, and half-integer spin particles obey Fermi statistics” stands in bold contrast to its intricate physical origin. Indeed, Pauli's proof of the spin–statistics theorem [Pau40] (improving on earlier work by Fierz [Fie39]), showed that the spin–statistics connection was deeply rooted in relativistic quantum field theory. The path to a rigorous proof of this theorem (from the mathematical point of view) was a long one and involved the efforts of many people (see, e.g., the book by Duck and Sudarshan [DS98b]).
The geometry of classical phase space is determined by the Poisson bracket of functions on phase space. Canonical transformations of the classical coordinates and momenta are defined by the property that the fundamental Poisson brackets be preserved. In this section we shall study in detail the linear canonical transformations in phase space and their representations in quantum mechanics. The reason for developing these concepts is twofold. First of all there are a number of geometric transformations common to classical and quantum mechanics which appear naturally in the analysis of many-body systems. Examples are rotations of the three space coordinates, permutations of single-particle coordinates and transformations to various types of relative vectors. To these we shall add translations of coordinates and momenta and construct the operators which represent these geometric transformations in the Hilbert space of quantum mechanics. The second reason for dealing with these transformations is the fact that certain operators encountered in quantum mechanics may be interpreted as representatives of underlying geometric transformations in classical phase space. This applies in particular to dilatation operators and to Gaussian interactions. Recognition of the underlying geometric transformation allows us to reduce operator multiplication to combination on the geometric level like matrix multiplication.