Poisson geometric formulation of quantum mechanics

Abstract

We study the Poisson geometrical formulation of quantum mechanics for finite dimensional mixed and pure states. Equivalently, we show that quantum mechanics can be understood in the language of classical mechanics. We review the symplectic structure of the Hilbert space and identify its canonical coordinates. We extend the geometric picture to the space of density matrices DN+. We find it is not symplectic but admits a linear su(N) Poisson structure. We identify Casimir surfaces of DN+ and show that the space of pure states PN≡CPN−1 is one of its symplectic submanifolds which is an intersection of primitive Casimirs. We identify generic symplectic submanifolds of DN+ and calculate their dimensions. We find that DN+ is singularly foliated by the symplectic leaves of varying dimensions, also known as coadjoint orbits. We also find an ascending chain of Poisson submanifolds DNM⊂DNM+1 for 1 ≤ M ≤ N − 1. Each such Poisson submanifold DNM is obtained by tracing out the CM states from the bipartite system CN×CM and is an intersection of N − M primitive Casimirs of DN+. Their Poisson structure is induced from the symplectic structure of the bipartite system. We also show their foliations. Finally, we study the positive semi-definite geometry of the symplectic submanifold ENM consisting of the mixed states with maximum entropy in DNM.