Features of Moyal trajectories

Abstract

We study the Moyal evolution of the canonical position and momentum variables. We compare it with the classical evolution and show that, contrary to what is commonly found in the literature, the two dynamics do not coincide. We prove that this divergence is quite general by studying Hamiltonians of the form p2∕2m+V(q). Several alternative formulations of Moyal dynamics are then suggested. We introduce the concept of star function and use it to reformulate the Moyal equations in terms of a system of ordinary differential equations on the noncommutative Moyal plane. We then use this formulation to study the semiclassical expansion of Moyal trajectories, which is cast in terms of a (order by order in ℏ) recursive hierarchy of (i) first order partial differential equations as well as (ii) systems of first order ordinary differential equations. The latter formulation is derived independently for analytic Hamiltonians as well as for the more general case of locally integrable ones. We present various examples illustrating these results.