This thesis is concerned with the representation theory of the Heisenberg group and its applications to both classical and quantum mechanics. We continue the development of
p-mechanics which is a consistent physical theory capable of describing both classical and quantum mechanics simultaneously.
p-Mechanics starts from the observation that the one dimensional representations of the Heisenberg group play the same role in classical mechanics which the infinite dimensional representations play in quantum mechanics. In this thesis we introduce the idea of states to
p-mechanics.
p-Mechanical states come in two forms: elements of a Hilbert space and integration kernels. In developing
p-mechanical states we show that quantum probability amplitudes can be obtained using solely functions/distributions on the Heisenberg group. This theory is applied to the examples of the forced, harmonic and coupled oscillators. In doing so we show that both the quantum and classical dynamics of these systems can be derived from the same source. Also using
p-mechanics we simplify some of the current quantum mechanical calculations. We also analyse the role of both linear and non-linear canonical transformations in
p-mechanics. We enhance a method derived by Moshinsky for studying the passage of canonical transformations from classical to quantum mechanics. The Kepler/Coulomb problem is also examined in the
p-mechanical context. In analysing this problem we show some limitations of the current
p-mechanical approach. We then use Klauder's coherent states to generate a Hilbert space which is particularly useful for the Kepler/Coulomb problem.
We study quantum behavior from a constructive "finite" point of view, since the introduction of continuum or other actual infinities into physics poses serious conceptual and technical difficulties without any need for these concepts in physics as an empirical science. Taking this approach, we can show that the quantum-mechanical problems can be formulated in the invariant subspaces of permutation representations of finite groups, while the quantum interferences occur as phenomena that are observable in these subspaces. The scalar products in the invariant subspaces (which are needed for formulating the Born rule – the main postulate of quantum mechanics that links mathematical description with experiment) are linear combinations of independent bilinear invariant forms of the permutation representation. A complete set of such forms for any permutation group can be easily calculated by a simple algorithm. Slightly more sophisticated algorithms are required for expressing quantum observables in terms of these forms.
A classical theorem of Stone and von Neumann says that the Schrödinger representation is, up to unitary equivalences, the only irreducible representation of the Heisenberg group on the Hilbert space of square-integrable functions on configuration space. Using the Wigner-Moyal transform we construct an irreducible representation of the Heisenberg group on a certain Hilbert space of square-integrable functions defined on phase space. This allows us to extend the usual Weyl calculus into a phase-space calculus and leads us to a quantum mechanics in phase space, equivalent to standard quantum mechanics. We also briefly discuss the extension of metaplectic operators to phase space and the probabilistic interpretation of the solutions of the phase space Schrödinger equation
This is an up-to-date survey of the p-mechanical construction (see funct-an/9405002, quant-ph/9610016, math-ph/0007030, quant-ph/0212101, quant-ph/0303142), which is a consistent physical theory suitable for a simultaneous description of classical and quantum mechanics. Observables in p-mechanics are defined to be convolution operators on the Heisenberg group H^n. Under irreducible representations of H^n the p-observables generate corresponding observables in classical and quantum mechanics. p-States are defined as positive linear functionals on p-observables. It is shown that both states and observables can be realised as certain sets of functions/distributions on the Heisenberg group. The dynamical equations for both p-observables and p-states are provided. The construction is illustrated by the forced and unforced harmonic oscillators. Connections with the contextual interpretation of quantum mechanics are discussed. Keywords: Classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, Moyal brackets, Poisson brackets, commutator, Heisenberg group, orbit method, deformation quantisation, symplectic group, representation theory, metaplectic representation, Berezin quantisation, Weyl quantisation, Segal--Bargmann--Fock space, coherent states, wavelet transform, Liouville equation, contextual interpretation, interaction picture, forced harmonic oscillator.
This thesis addresses aspects of quantum phase and sets out to draw attention to a collection of new and extend some not so new techniques utilizing Weyl's correspondence rule and its inverse. The phase formulation of quantum mechanics is as old as quantum mechanics itself and evolved over a period of two decades due to the contributions of H. Weyl \cite{Weyl1950}, E. P. Wigner \cite{Wigner1932}, H. Groenewold \cite{Groenewold1946} and J. E. Moyal \cite{Moyal1949}. Over the ensuing years the phase picture has matured into a practical analytical tool, and has generated a multitude of technical papers, reports, reviews, and expositions from many authors and commentators. One reason for its success is that it offers an intuitive picture of quantum mechanics owing to its \it{classical look and feel}, and it has made an impression, in one way or another, in many fields such as mathematical physics, quantum optics, and physical chemistry.The thesis opens with a brief history of classical phase space, tracing the possible origin of the term ``phase space itself, and chronicles the events leading to the conceptualization (and generalization) of quantum phase space. In Chapter 2 the Weyl correspondence is recast in terms of von Neumann's integral kernel transform and a heuristic analysis is given from this perspective. A characteristic of Weyl's correspondence rule and its inverse is that there are two inherent representations of the same operator. These have been referred to as the Weyl representation and Wigner representation and are related by a symplectic Fourier transform. For an arbitrary outer dyadic operator it is shown that the Weyl representation leads to the \it{modified} Gabor transform (known to Signal Processing), while the Wigner representation specializes to the Bargmann transform and a representation in terms of analytic functions. Calculating Weyl-Wigner (WW) transforms of products of
n operators, from first principles, has proved to be a technically difficult problem. However, with the machinery developed in Chapter 2 the problem is reduced to a straightforward algebraic exercise. Finally, forming an
s-parametrized generalization of Weyl's correspondence rule and focusing on the Weyl representation it is shown to lead to an intimate relationship with the relative state formalism \cite{Ban1998}. Weyl's correspondence rule is only applicable to operators and consequently state vectors
∣ψ⟩ are not represented in the usual formulation of quantum phase space. This problem is circumvented in Chapter 3 by introducing the notion of a normalized fixed state (or window) vector
∣φ0⟩ to form an outer dyadic product $\wh{\Psi} = |\psi\rangle\langle\varphi_0|$. The WW transform of this product under the action of the Weyl's rule is a complex valued function of real variables called a phase amplitude and denoted by the symbol
Ψ. The phase amplitudes have many (and sometimes surprising) properties. For example they: \begin{itemize} \item form the building blocks of Wigner functions
W by admitting a generalized Born rule
W=Ψ⋆Ψˉ, and as such can be considered to be a more fundamental objects than Wigner functions; \item superpose and interfere like the state vectors they represent; \item specialize to the Bargmann and Gabor transforms when a Gaussian window is chosen; \end{itemize} \ni In Chapter 4 further aspects of phase amplitudes are explored and discussed. For example it is shown that they: \begin{itemize} \item define phase state vectors which form an over complete set and are elements of a reproducing kernel Hilbert space; \item allow unitary ray representations of the group symmetries of translation, rotation and time reversal; \item evolve in phase under the influence of a propagator
R which is intimately related to the Wigner propagator
P. \end{itemize} Chapter 5 considers an extension of phase amplitudes to include systems with finitely many degrees of freedom. These are called spin amplitudes and are obtained by first forming the outer dyadic product of a spin state vector with an arbitrary fixed spin state vector, and then applying a finite-dimensional analogue of the WW transform. The spin amplitude operator is represented as an
n×n matrix, whose elements are products of the spin components of the spin and fixed state vectors. Two kinds of spin amplitudes are considered, arising on the sphere
S2 or on a
(2j+1) dimensional lattice. In the special case of spin-$\half$ systems it is shown that the spin amplitudes transform as spinors under rotations on both the sphere and lattice. As a physical application the spin amplitudes for a spin-$\half$ magnetic dipole are found for a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) environment. Chapter 6 considers Schwinger's abstract approach to quantum mechanics which takes into account the inability to indefinitely compensate for fluctuations in the measurement process. The resulting measurement algebra provides a symbolic representation of the physical laws as opposed to the mathematical abstraction (of von Neumann and Dirac) that was justified \it{\'a posteriori} by being in agreement with experiment. Despite Schwinger's prolific work on the subject of measurement algebra, its interpretation in quantum phase remained an open issue. It is shown that the key to formulating a quantum phase in terms of the measurement operators and transformation functions is the determination of a suitable set of basis operators for an arbitrary measurement operator. Many new results follow as a consequence of expanding an arbitrary measurement operator in this basis. In Chapter 7 the quantum-classical interface is explored by considering Hamilton's principal function or action
S(q,v,t). Starting from a purely heuristic classical argument, a phase function
U(p,q,t) is derived in terms of the classical action and is shown to be proportional to the WW transform of the quantum evolution operator. This association leads to the transform \be U(p,q,t) = A(t) \int e^{ipv/\hbar} e^{iS(q,v,t)/\hbar} \; \rm{d}v, \ee which enables one, in principle, to deduce the Wigner functions of a given system when only the classical action is known. Simple physical systems are used to provide examples illustrating this approach.
In this work, the version of Wigner transforms and Wigner functions on discrete systems are formulated. Using frame quantization, the star-product of phase space functions are also computed for a particular finite group. Specifically, the Wigner transform, Wigner function and star-product are computed for the dicyclic group Dien. Frames are the discrete version of coherent states. In the literature, quasiprobability distributions are essential in the study of the phase space representations of quantum mechanics, and are naturally associated to frame quantizations. For this work, the unitary irreducible representations of a finite group play an essential role in the construction.