Quantum Brachistochrone problem and the geometry of the state space in pseudo-Hermitian quantum mechanics

A non-Hermitian operator with a real spectrum and a complete set of eigenvectors may serve as the Hamiltonian operator for a unitary quantum system provided that one makes an appropriate choice for the defining the inner product of physical Hilbert state. We study the consequences of such a choice for the representation of states in terms of projection operators and the geometry of the state space. This allows for a careful treatment of the quantum Brachistochrone problem and shows that it is indeed impossible to achieve faster unitary evolutions using PT-symmetric or other non-Hermitian Hamiltonians than those given by Hermitian Hamiltonians.     

Canonical forms for quadratic Hamiltonians

Our analysis of the applicable representations of the group of Bogoliubov transformations shows that the diagonalization of a quadratic fermion Hamiltonian with arbitrary complex coefficients is equivalent to the reduction of a skew symmetric matrix to secondary diagonal form by an orthogonal transformation, which we construct explicitly.Similarly, the diagonalization of a positive definite boson Hamiltonian with complex coefficients is equivalent to Whittaker's diagonalization of a symmetric matrix by a symplectic transformatio. Both results are shown to follow from a general spectral theorem for indefinite inner product space, a recent extension of which allows us to block diagonalize a positive definite quadratic boson Hamiltonian with complex coefficients and infinite degrees of freedom and thereby provide a counterpart to Araki's result for Fermi fields.     

Quasi-hermiticity and the Role of a Metric in Some Boson Hamiltonians

The strategy of endowing PT-symmetric quantum mechanics with a positive definite metric, by adopting a modified inner product, has recently been explored in a simple non-hermitian quadratic boson Hamiltonian. We reconsider this analysis with emphasis on the question of a unique metric linked to the identification of an irreducible set of observables. Our results emphasise the necessity to ensure such a unique metric in order to establish a viable quantum mechanical framework.     

Completing Bethe's Equations at Roots of Unity

In a previous paper we demonstrated that Bethe's equations are not sufficient to specify the eigenvectors of the XXZ model at roots of unity for states where the Hamiltonian has degenerate eigenvalues. We here find the equations which will complete the specification of the eigenvectors in these degenerate cases and present evidence that the sl ₂ loop algebra symmetry is sufficiently powerful to determine that the highest weight of each irreducible representation is given by Bethe's ansatz.     

Quantum field theoretical description of unstable behavior of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates with complex eigenvalues of Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations

The Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are used for a number of theoretical works on the trapped Bose-Einstein condensates. These equations are known to give the energies of the quasi-particles when all the eigenvalues are real. We consider the case in which these equations have complex eigenvalues. We give the complete set including those modes whose eigenvalues are complex. The quantum fields which represent neutral atoms are expanded in terms of the complete set. It is shown that the state space is an indefinite metric one and that the free Hamiltonian is not diagonalizable in the conventional bosonic representation. We introduce a criterion to select quantum states describing the metastablity of the condensate, called the physical state conditions. In order to study the instability, we formulate the linear response of the density against the time-dependent external perturbation within the regime of Kubo’s linear response theory. Some states, satisfying all the physical state conditions, give the blow-up and damping behavior of the density distributions corresponding to the complex eigenmodes. It is qualitatively consistent with the result of the recent analyses using the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation.     

Dynamics of Abelian Higgs vortices in the near Bogomolny regime

The aim of this paper is to give an analytical discussion of the dynamics of the Abelian Higgs multi-vortices whose existence was proved by Taubes ([JT82]). For a particular value of a parameter of the theory, , called the Higgs self-coupling constant, there is no force between two vortices and there exist static configurations corresponding to vortices centred at any set of points in the plane. This is known as the Bogomolny regime. We will develop some formal asymptotic expansions to describe the dynamics of these multi-vortices for close, but not equal to, this critical value. We shall then prove the validity of these asymptotic expansions. These expansions allow us to give a finite dimensional Hamiltonian system which describes the vortex dynamics. The configuration space of this system is the moduli space—the space of solutions of the static equations modulo gauge equivalence. The kinetic energy term in the Hamiltonian is obtained from the natural metric on the moduli space given by theL ² inner product of the tangent vectors. The potential energy gives the intervortex potential which is non-zero when is not given by its critical value. Thus the reduced equations for the evolution of the vortex parameters take the form of geodesics, with force terms to express the departure from the Bogomolny regime. The geodesics are geodesics on the moduli space with respect to the metric defined by theL ² inner product of the tangent vectors, in accordance with Manton's suggestion ([Man82]). This allows an understanding of the two main phenomenological issues—first of all there is the right angle scattering phenomenon, according to which two vortices passing through one another scatter through ninety degrees. Secondly there is the conjecture from numerical calculations that vortices repel for greater than the critical value, and attract for less than this value. The results of this paper allow a rigorous understanding of the right angle scattering phenomenon ([Sam92, Hit88]) and reduce the question of attraction or repulsion in the near Bogomolny regime to an understanding of the potential energy term in the Hamiltonian ([JR79]).     

Scalars coupled to fermions in 1+1 dimensions

Using a method introduced in an earlier paper, we study a Bose field coupled to a Fermi field in 1+1 space-time dimensions. We employ the standard Hamiltonian formalism in which one computes the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian matrix. The matrix elements are computed using states defined on a lattice in momentum space. The results are compared with known strong and weak coupling limits. Bound states and renormalization effects are studied. We find that the choice of bare masses which give specified physical masses can be non-unique once a critical couplingλ _μ has been exceeded.     

On representations of canonical commutation relations in indefinite metric quantum field theory

Representations of the abstract algebra of CCR in indefinite inner product space are investigated. It is shown that these representations are characterized by functions with some non-standard positive definiteness property.     

Geometry of the Unification of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity of a Single Particle

The paper summarizes, generalizes and reveals the physical content of a recently proposed framework that unifies the standard formalisms of special relativity and quantum mechanics. The framework is based on Hilbert spaces H of functions of four space-time variables x,t, furnished with an additional indefinite inner product invariant under Poincaré transformations. The indefinite metric is responsible for breaking the symmetry between space and time variables and for selecting a family of Hilbert subspaces that are preserved under Galileo transformations. Within these subspaces the usual quantum mechanics with Shrödinger evolution and t as the evolution parameter is derived. Simultaneously, the Minkowski space-time is embedded into H as a set of point-localized states, Poincaré transformations obtain unique extensions to H and the embedding commutes with Poincaré transformations. Furthermore, the framework accommodates arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian space-times furnished with the action of the diffeomorphism group.     

High order corrections to the time-independent Born-Oppenheimer approximation II: Diatomic Coulomb systems

We study the bound states of diatomic molecular systems. We prove that if the nuclear masses are proportional to ε^?4 then certain eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian have asymptotic expansions to arbitrarily high order in powers of ε, as ε→0. The zeroth through fourth order terms in the expansions for the eigenvalues are those of the well-known Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The fifth order term is zero.     

Construction of model hamiltonians in framework of Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory

A theory of the model Hamiltonians within the framework of Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory is elaborated. The approach of a model Hamiltonian is based on the assumption that if it is diagonalized in a chosen model space it will yield eigenvalues of the original Hamiltonian in the entire Hilbert space. The theory of the model Hamiltonians may be fruitful as a theoretical background for the study of effective Hamiltonians and as natural extension of the standard Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory.     

New perspectives on the Ising model

The Ising model, in presence of an external magnetic field, is isomorphic to a model of localized interacting particles satisfying the Fermi statistics. By using this isomorphism, we construct a general solution of the Ising model which holds for any dimensionality of the system. The Hamiltonian of the model is solved in terms of a complete finite set of eigenoperators and eigenvalues. The Green’s function and the correlation functions of the fermionic model are exactly known and are expressed in terms of a finite small number of parameters that have to be self-consistently determined. By using the equation of the motion method, we derive a set of equations which connect different spin correlation functions. The scheme that emerges is that it is possible to describe the Ising model from a unified point of view where all the properties are connected to a small number of local parameters, and where the critical behavior is controlled by the energy scales fixed by the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian. By using algebra and symmetry considerations, we calculate the self-consistent parameters for the one-dimensional case. All the properties of the system are calculated and obviously agree with the exact results reported in the literature.     

Vibrational properties of hierarchical systems

The vibrational properties of one-dimensional hierarchical systems are investigated and results are obtained for both their eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Two cases are considered, the first one with a hierarchy of spring constants and the latter with a hierarchy in the masses. In both cases the eigenspectrum is found to be a zero-measure, two-scale Cantor set with a fractal dimension between 0 and 1. The scaling properties of the spectra are calculated using renormalization group techniques and are verified by extensive numerical work. The low-frequency density of states and low-temperature specific heat are calculated and a singularity is found in the scaling behavior. The eigenvectors are found to be either extended or critical and self-similar. A transfer matrix formalism is introduced to calculate the scaling properties of the envelope of the critical eigenvectors. Furthermore, a connection is established between the hierarchical vibration and diffusion problems, as well as to the same problems in random systems, thus showing the universality of the observed features.     

Construction of a strictly renormalizable effective Lagrangian for the massive Abelian Higgs model

It is shown, using the BPHZ renormalization program and Zimmermann's normal product algorithm, that a strictly renormalizable effective Lagrangian for the Abelian massive Higgs model does exist: Ward identities are fulfilled, and normalization conditions, defining a theory in an indefinite metric Fock space, may be implemented.     

New Coherent States for the BDS-Hamiltonian

In the paper we construct a new set of coherent states for a deformed Hamiltonian of the harmonic oscillator, previously introduced by Beckers, Debergh, and Szafraniec, which we have called the BDS-Hamiltonian. This Hamiltonian depends on the new creation operator a ⁺, i.e. the usual creation operator displaced with the real quantity . In order to construct the coherent states, we use a new measure in the Hilbert space of the Hamiltonian eigenstates, in fact we change the inner product. This ansatz assures that the set of eigenstates be orthonormalized and complete. In the new inner product space the BDS-Hamiltonian is self-adjoint. Using these coherent states, we construct the corresponding density operator and we find the P-distribution function of the unnormalized density operator of the BDS-Hamiltonian. Also, we calculate some thermal averages related to the BDS-oscillators system which obey the quantum canonical distribution conditions.     

Numerical Evidence of Quantum Correspondence to the Classical Ergodicity

Numerical experiment in Lipkin model shows that, in quantum system with global chaotic classical limit, the temporal mean of the expectation value of an observable is approximately equal to the average over the basic states of Hilbert space, if the wavefunction is initially either a coherent wave packet or the common eigenstates of a complete set of observables, and the observable is independent of the Hamiltonian. The mechanism is the absence of KAM barrier which prevents the spread of wavefunction. This can serve as a quantum signature of classical chaos.     

The Supersymmetry and Eigen Energy Spectrum of a Charged Dirac Particle in a Uniform Constant Magnetic Field

Based on the opinion that the γ-matrices in Dirac equation have structure and are decomposable, we decompose the γ-matrices into the direct product of the operators in the spin space and the particle-antiparticle space. By using this method, we attain a complete set of commutative operators, a set of quantum numbers and the correspondingly eigen solutions of the Hamiltonian for a charged Dirac particle moving in a uniform constant magnetic field. In addition, the dynamic supersymmetry of the Hamiltonian is unveiled. Spin symmetry breaking and particle-antiparticle symmetry breaking are discussed, and the supersymmetric group operator of the degenerate spin subspace resulting from the spin residual supersymmetry is found.     

Chern–Simons theory and BCS superconductivity

We study the relationship between the holomorphic unitary connection of Chern–Simons theory with temporal Wilson lines and the Richardson's exact solution of the reduced BCS Hamiltonian. We derive the integrals of motion of the BCS model, their eigenvalues and eigenvectors as a limiting case of the Chern–Simons theory.     

Nested Bethe Ansatz for Spin Ladder Model with Open Boundary Conditions

The nested Bethe ansatz (BA) method is applied to find the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of the transfer matrix for spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions. Based on the reflection equation, we find the general diagonal solution, which determines the general boundary interaction in the Hamiltonian. We introduce the spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions. By finding the solution K^± of the reflection equation which determines the nontrivial boundary terms in the Hamiltonian, we diagonalize the transfer matrix of the spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions in the framework of nested BA.