Quantum kinematics of the harmonic oscillator

Abstract

The formalism of non-Abelian quantum kinematics is applied to the Newtonian symmetry group of the harmonic oscillator. Within the regular ray representation of the group, the Schrödinger operator, as well as two other (new) invariant operators, are obtained as Casimir operators of the extended kinematic algebra. Superselection rules are then introduced, which permit the identification (and the explicit calculation) of the physical states of the system. Next, a complementary ray representation, attached to the space-time realization of the group, casts the Schrödinger operator into the familiar time-dependent space-time differential operator of the harmonic oscillator and thus, by means of the superselection rules, one obtains the time-dependent Schrödinger equation of the sytem. Finally, the evaluation of a Hurwitz invariant integral, over the group manifold, affords the well known Feynman space-time propagator 〈t′,x′‖t,x〉 of the simple harmonic oscillator. Everything comes out from the assumed symmetries of the system. The whole approach is group theoretic and ‘‘relativistic.’’ No classical analog is used in this ‘‘quantization’’ scheme.