Split-quaternionic structure and canonical quantization of the Bateman dual oscillator

Abstract

Bateman's dual oscillator embeds a damped harmonic oscillator and an independent anti-damped adjoint coordinate in a conservative doubled system. We develop a split-quaternionic formulation that remains consistent from the classical equations through ordinary complex canonical quantization. The doubled dynamics is written as a two-sided hypercomplex evolution whose conserved indefinite quadratic form is the split norm, while the sign of the generator square unifies the underdamped, overdamped, and critical regimes. The Bateman Lagrangian is recovered as a real scalar action on the split-complex configuration subalgebra. After quantization, operator-valued split quaternions belong to the complexified algebra $\mathbb C\otimes_{\mathbb R}\mathbb H_s\simeq M_2(\mathbb C)$. Noncommuting mechanical components require a symmetrized quantum split norm, which exactly reproduces the symmetrically ordered canonical Hamiltonian. Null idempotents resolve the crossed canonical structure of the doubled phase space. In particular, damping yields $[m\dot{\widehat y},m\dot{\widehat x}]=\mathrm{i}\hbar m\gamma$ and a Robertson--Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation. The limit $\gamma\to0$ retains the doubled positive/negative geometry; the ordinary single-oscillator Heisenberg relation is recovered only after selecting the positive normal mode, or by undoubling before quantization. The scalar split action gives the exact quadratic propagator and Gaussian evolution. A formal trace over the auxiliary coordinate is finally compared with high-temperature Caldeira--Leggett dynamics, clarifying that the doubled model is a coherent zero-noise embedding rather than a microscopic reservoir theory.