Getting to the Bottom of Noether’s Theorem

Abstract

We examine the assumptions behind Noether's theorem connecting symmetries and conservation laws. To compare classical and quantum versions of this theorem, we take an algebraic approach. In both classical and quantum mechanics, observables are naturally elements of a Jordan algebra, while generators of one-parameter groups of transformations are naturally elements of a Lie algebra. Noether's theorem holds whenever we can map observables to generators in such a way that each observable generates a one-parameter group that preserves itself. In ordinary complex quantum mechanics this mapping is multiplication by $\sqrt{-1}$. In the more general framework of unital JB-algebras, Alfsen and Shultz call such a mapping a correspondence, and show its presence allows us to identify the unital JB-algebra with the self-adjoint part of a complex C*-algebra. However, to prove their result, they impose a second, more obscure, condition on the dynamical correspondence. We show this expresses a relation between quantum and statistical mechanics, closely connected to the principle that inverse temperature is imaginary time.