Relations of canonical and unitary transformations for a general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian system

Abstract

We consider general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian systems which are connected by canonical transformations and give the same classical equations of motion. In those systems, we demonstrate that canonical transformations in classical mechanics correspond to unitary transformations in quantum mechanics. The wave functions and the propagators are evaluated using the invariant operator method. However, the values of some functions of the canonical variables q and p are not equal to the values of the same functions of the other canonical variables Q and P, but the values of the functions of q and the kinetic momentum ${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{k}}$ are equal to those of the other Q and ${\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{k}}$ in classical mechanics. We prove that these also hold in the quantum treatment. The uncertainty relations of momentum and position are evaluated for the two Hamiltonians.