Perturbative symplectic field theory and Wigner function

We study relativistic quantum field theories in phase space, based on representations of the Poincaré group, using the Moyal product. We develop a perturbative theory for quantizing fields, with functional methods in phase space. The two-point function is related to relativistic Wigner functions for bosons and fermions. As an example we analyze the complex scalar field with quartic self-interaction.     

Causal Symmetry Transformations and their Representations by Semigroups

If one distinguishes between states and observables in quantum theory one obtains from causality arguments that the quantum theoretical symmetry transformations of non relativistic and relativistic space time do not form a group but a semigroup into the forward light cone. These semigroup representations describe resonances and decaying states.     

Relativistic Hall effect

We consider the relativistic deformation of quantum waves and mechanical bodies carrying intrinsic angular momentum (AM). When observed in a moving reference frame, the centroid of the object undergoes an AM-dependent transverse shift. This is the relativistic analogue of the spin-Hall effect, which occurs in free space without any external fields. Remarkably, the shifts of the geometric and energy centroids differ by a factor of 2, and both centroids are crucial for the Lorentz transformations of the AM tensor. We examine manifestations of the relativistic Hall effect in quantum vortices and mechanical flywheels and also discuss various fundamental aspects of this phenomenon. The perfect agreement of quantum and relativistic approaches allows applications at strikingly different scales, from elementary spinning particles, through classical light, to rotating black holes.     

Influence of Misalignment on High-Order Aberration Correction for Normal Human Eyes

Although a compensation device can correct aberrations of human eyes, the effect will be degraded by its misalignment, especially for high-order aberration correction. We calculate the positioning tolerance of correction device for high-order aberrations, and within what degree the correcting effect is better than low-order aberration （defocus and astigmatism） correction. With fixed certain misalignment within the positioning tolerance, we calculate the residual wavefront rms aberration of the first-6 to first-35 terms along with the 3rd-Sth terms of aberrations corrected, and the combined first-13 terms of aberrations are also studied under the same quantity of misalignment. However, the correction effect of high-order aberrations does not meliorate along with the increase of the high-order terms under some misalignment, moreover, some simple combined terms correction can achieve similar result as complex combinations. These results suggest that it is unnecessary to correct too much the terms of high-order aberrations which are difficult to accomplish in practice, and gives confidence to correct high-order aberrations out of the laboratory.     

Relativistic Gamow Vectors

Whereas in Dirac quantum mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory one uses Schwartz space distributions, the extensions of the Hilbert space that we propose uses Hardy spaces. The in- and out-Lippmann-Schwinger kets of scattering theory are functionals in two rigged Hilbert space extensions of the same Hilbert space. This hypothesis also allows to introduce generalized vectors corresponding to unstable states, the Gamow kets. Here the relativistic formulation of the theory of unstable states is presented. It is shown that the relativistic Gamow vectors of the unstable states, defined by a resonance pole of the S-matrix, are classified according to the irreducible representations of the semigroup of the Poincaré transformations (into the forward light cone). As an application the problem of the mass definition of the intermediate vector boson Z is discussed and it is argued that only one mass definition leads to the exponential decay law, and that is not the standard definition of the on-the-mass-shell renormalization scheme.     

Berry’s phase for a spin 1/2 particle in the presence of topological defects

The relativistic quantum dynamics of a spinorial quantum particle in the presence of a chiral conical background is investigated. We study the gravitational Berry geometric quantum phase acquired by a spin 1/2 particle in the chiral cosmic string spacetime. We obtain the result that this phase depends on the global features of this spacetime. We also consider the case that a string possesses an internal magnetic flux and obtain the geometric quantum phase in this case. The spacetime of multiple chiral cosmic strings is considered and the relativistic Berry quantum phase is also obtained.     

Quantum mechanics in noninertial reference frames: Relativistic accelerations and fictitious forces

One-particle systems in relativistically accelerating reference frames can be associated with a class of unitary representations of the group of arbitrary coordinate transformations, an extension of the Wigner–Bargmann definition of particles as the physical realization of unitary irreducible representations of the Poincaré group. Representations of the group of arbitrary coordinate transformations become necessary to define unitary operators implementing relativistic acceleration transformations in quantum theory because, unlike in the Galilean case, the relativistic acceleration transformations do not themselves form a group. The momentum operators that follow from these representations show how the fictitious forces in noninertial reference frames are generated in quantum theory.     

Deformed special relativity in position space

We investigate how deformations of special relativity in momentum space can be extended to position space in a consistent way, such that the dimensionless contraction between wave-vector and coordinate-vector remains invariant. By using a parametrization in terms of an energy dependent speed of light, and an energy dependent Planck's constant, we are able to formulate simple requirements that completely determine the active transformations in position space. These deviate from the standard transformations for large velocities of the observed object. Some examples are discussed, and it is shown how the relativistic mass gain of a massive particle is affected. We finally study the construction of passive Lorentz-transformations.     

Phase-space path integration of the relativistic particle equations

Hamilton-Jacobi theory is applied to find appropriate canonical transformations for the calculation of the phase-space path integrals of the relativistic particle equations. Hence, canonical transformations and Hamilton-Jacobi theory are also introduced into relativistic quantum mechanics. Moreover, from the classical physics viewpoint, it is very interesting to find and to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equations for the relativistic particle equations.     

Phase-Space Analysis of Wavefront Coding Imaging Systems

We explore the use of the Radon-Wigner transform, which is associated with the fractional Fourier transform of the pupil function, for determining the point spread function （PSF） of an incoherent defocused optical system. Then we introduce these phase-space tools to analyse the wavefront coding imaging system. It is shown that the shape of the PSF for such a system is highly invariant to the defocus-related aberrations except for a lateral shift. The optical transfer function of this system is also investigated briefly from a new understanding of ambiguity function.     

Relativistic Anandan quantum phase in the Lorentz violation background

We study the influence of a classical background based on the violation of the Lorentz symmetry on the relativistic Anandan quantum phase. We show that the choice of the Lorentz symmetry violation background provides an abelian contribution for the relativistic Anandan quantum phase.     

Canonical transformations in quantum mechanics

This paper presents the general theory of canonical transformations of coordinates in quantum mechanics. First, the theory is developed in the formalism of phase space quantum mechanics. It is shown that by transforming a star-product, when passing to a new coordinate system, observables and states transform as in classical mechanics, i.e., by composing them with a transformation of coordinates. Then the developed formalism of coordinate transformations is transferred to a standard formulation of quantum mechanics. In addition, the developed theory is illustrated on examples of particular classes of quantum canonical transformations.     

Gauge interaction as periodicity modulation

The paper is devoted to a geometrical interpretation of gauge invariance in terms of the formalism of field theory in compact space–time dimensions (Dolce, 2011) [8]. In this formalism, the kinematic information of an interacting elementary particle is encoded on the relativistic geometrodynamics of the boundary of the theory through local transformations of the underlying space–time coordinates. Therefore gauge interactions are described as invariance of the theory under local deformations of the boundary. The resulting local variations of the field solution are interpreted as internal transformations. The internal symmetries of the gauge theory turn out to be related to corresponding space–time local symmetries. In the approximation of local infinitesimal isometric transformations, Maxwell’s kinematics and gauge invariance are inferred directly from the variational principle. Furthermore we explicitly impose periodic conditions at the boundary of the theory as semi-classical quantization condition in order to investigate the quantum behavior of gauge interaction. In the abelian case the result is a remarkable formal correspondence with scalar QED.     

On the relation between the wave aberration function and the phase transfer function for an incoherent imaging system with circular pupil

The consideration is carried out in its general formulation: the wave aberration function is represented in terms of classical aberrations (the Zernike polynomials), the phase transfer function (argument of the complex optical transfer function) is defined by a chain of transformations originating from the generalized pupil function. Quasi-analytical quadrature formulas are derived that link the optical transfer function and the phase transfer function with the aberration terms. It is shown that the phase transfer function contains information on the odd-order aberrations, which can be retrieved from coefficients to the Taylor expansion of the derived quadrature relation. Received 16 June 2001     

Saturation of confining forces in a relativistic quark model for the baryons

A relativistic quark model for the baryons with saturating three-particle forces is investigated. The properties of relativistic three-fermion amplitudes are analyzed with respect to Lorentz transformations and permutations. Six different classes of possible structures in spin space are found. They serve as an appropriate basis for the classification and calculation of spin-dependent interactions. The quantum numbers and amplitudes for the orbital part are determined for Euclidean relative vectors with help of the irreducible representations of the groups SU(4) SO(4) SO(3). These kinematical results together with the Green's function techniques of relativistic quantum field theory are applied to a Bethe-Salpeter model for the binding of three heavy quarks inside a baryon. We give as an example a confining saturating interaction which yields baryon quantum numbers similar to those of the non-relativistic harmonic oscillator model. However, the spin structure of the amplitudes obtained in this way differs from the boosted non-relativistic ones. This feature is important, since the phenomenological discussion of photoproduction and strong decays of the baryon resonances shows that at least sizable corrections to the non-relativistic amplitudes are necessary.     

Low order adaptive optics on Z-Beamlet using a single actuator deformable mirror

The Z-Beamlet laser at Sandia National Laboratories can perform a full system shot every 3-4 h. This shot rate is limited by thermal aberrations that result from the flashlamp pumped Nd:phosphate amplifier slabs. The lowest order as well as the strongest aberration is of cylindrical shape. Therefore, a single actuator deformable mirror assembly for correction of cylindrical aberration was developed. Mirror performance was modeled using finite element analysis and showed good agreement with derived analytical expressions. Quantitative measurements were performed with an interferometer and thermal lens compensation was achieved in the Z-Beamlet laser system leading to an increased shot rate of one in every 2 h.     

Trajectories and causal phase-space approach to relativistic quantum mechanics

We analyze phase-space approaches to relativistic quantum mechanics from the viewpoint of the causal interpretation. In particular, we discuss the canonical phase space associated with stochastic quantization, its relation to Hilbert space, and the Wigner-Moyal formalism. We then consider the nature of Feynman paths, and the problem of nonlocality, and conclude that a perfectly consistent relativistically covariant interpretation of quantum mechanics which retains the notion of particle trajectory is possible.     

Fast Car Physics,by Chuck Edmondson

An introduction to the theory of modular symmetries in two-dimensional materials, and its application to ‘relativistic’ group IV materials like graphene, silicene, germanene and stanene, is given. Universal properties of the magneto-electric Hall effect are extracted by projecting experimental transport data directly onto the phase diagram. When families of data depending on the dominant scale parameter (usually temperature) are available, we can extract flow lines that chart the geometry of the phase diagram, including the location of quantum critical points and phase boundaries connecting these. The universal data are used to identify emergent modular symmetries, which are infinite discrete groups of fractional linear (Möbius) transformations. Such symmetries are extremely rigid, and therefore spawn a host of sharp predictions that are easy to falsify, but so far they have failed to fail. The unique topology of the Fermi surface in the graphene family gives a robust gapless mode with linear dispersion (relativistic Dirac cones) that shifts the spectrum of Landau levels that appear when the material is placed in a strong magnetic field. The modular analysis can be extended to this case, and where reliable data are available, there appears to be agreement. A convincing case for the ‘relativistic’ quantum Hall group is hampered by the paucity of fractional quantum Hall data, the absence of scaling data and the crossover between different scaling regimes. This is likely to change in the near future, as scaling data for graphene are just now becoming available.