Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Luca Schiavone

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Schiavone.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Schwinger's picture of quantum mechanics: 2-groupoids and symmetries

Starting from the groupoid approach to Schwinger's picture of Quantum Mechanics, a proposal for the description of symmetries in this framework is advanced.It is shown that, given a groupoid $G\rightrightarrows Ω$ associated with a (quantum) system, there are two possible descriptions of its symmetries, one "microscopic", the other one "global".The microscopic point of view leads to the introduction of an additional layer over the grupoid $G$, giving rise to a suitable algebraic structure of 2-groupoid.On the other hand, taking advantage of the notion of group of bisections of a given groupoid, the global perspective allows to construct a group of symmetries out of a 2-groupoid.The latter notion allows to introduce an analog of the Wigner's theorem for quantum symmetries in the groupoid approach to Quantum Mechanics.

quant-ph↗

Covariant reduction of classical Hamiltonian Field Theories: From D'Alembert to Klein-Gordon and Schrödinger

A novel reduction procedure for covariant classical field theories, reflecting the generalized symplectic reduction theory of Hamiltonian systems, is presented. The departure point of this reduction procedure consists in the choice of a submanifold of the manifold of solutions of the equations describing a field theory. Then, the covariance of the geometrical objects involved, will allow to define equations of motion on a reduced space. The computation of the canonical geometrical structure is performed neatly by using the geometrical framework provided by the multisymplectic description of covariant field theories. The procedure is illustrated by reducing the D'Alembert theory on a five-dimensional Minkowski space-time to a massive Klein-Gordon theory in four dimensions and, more interestingly, to the Schrödinger equation in 3+1 dimensions.

math-ph↗

Covariant Variational Evolution and Jacobi Brackets: Fields

The analysis of the covariant brackets on the space of functions on the solutions to a variational problem in the framework of contact geometry initiated in the companion letter Ref.19 is extended to the case of the multisymplectic formulation of the free Klein-Gordon theory and of the free Schrödinger equation.

math-ph↗

Covariant Variational Evolution and Jacobi Brackets: Particles

The formulation of covariant brackets on the space of solutions to a variational problem is analyzed in the framework of contact geometry. It is argued that the Poisson algebra on the space of functionals on fields should be read as a Poisson subalgebra within an algebra of functions equipped with a Jacobi bracket on a suitable contact manifold.

math-ph↗

Geometry from divergence functions and complex structures

Motivated by the geometrical structures of quantum mechanics, we introduce an almost-complex structure $J$ on the product $M\times M$ of any parallelizable statistical manifold $M$. Then, we use $J$ to extract a pre-symplectic form and a metric-like tensor on $M\times M$ from a divergence function. These tensors may be pulled back to $M$, and we compute them in the case of an N-dimensional symplex with respect to the Kullback-Leibler relative entropy, and in the case of (a suitable unfolding space of) the manifold of faithful density operators with respect to the von Neumann-Umegaki relative entropy.

quant-ph↗

Evolutionary equations and constraints: Maxwell equations

By fixing a reference frame in spacetime, it is possible to split the Euler-Lagrange equations associated with a degenerate Lagrangian into purely evolutionary equations and constraints on the allowed Cauchy data with respect to the notion of Space and Time associated with the given reference frame. In the context of Classical Electrodynamics, we introduce a "covariantization procedure" that allows to invert the perspective and to recover a full-fledged covariant formulation of Maxwell's equations starting only with constraint equations (i.e., Gauss' law and the local version of the law of conservation of magnetic flux) as perceived in a sufficient number of (inertial) reference frames on Minkowski spacetime.

math-ph↗

From Classical Trajectories to Quantum Commutation Relations

In describing a dynamical system, the greatest part of the work for a theoretician is to translate experimental data into differential equations. It is desirable for such differential equations to admit a Lagrangian and/or an Hamiltonian description because of the Noether theorem and because they are the starting point for the quantization. As a matter of fact many ambiguities arise in each step of such a reconstruction which must be solved by the ingenuity of the theoretician. In the present work we describe geometric structures emerging in Lagrangian, Hamiltonian and Quantum description of a dynamical system underlining how many of them are not really fixed only by the trajectories observed by the experimentalist.

math-ph↗

Nonlinear Dynamics from Linear Quantum Evolutions

Linear dynamics restricted to invariant submanifolds generally gives rise to nonlinear dynamics. Submanifolds in the quantum framework may emerge for several reasons: one could be interested in specific properties possessed by a given family of states, either as a consequence of experimental constraints or inside an approximation scheme. In this work we investigate such issues in connection with a one parameter group $ϕ_t$ of transformations on a Hilbert space, $\mathcal{H}$, defining the unitary evolutions of a chosen quantum system. Two procedures will be presented: the first one consists in the restriction of the vector field associated with the Schrödinger equation to a submanifold invariant under the flow $ϕ_t$. The second one makes use of the Lagrangian formalism and can be extended also to non-invariant submanifolds, even if in such a case the resulting dynamics is only an approximation of the flow $ϕ_t$. Such a result, therefore, should be conceived as a generalization of the variational method already employed for stationary problems.

quant-ph↗