The Path Integral on the Poincaré Disc, the Poincaré Upper Half-Plane and on the Hyperbolic Strip

Abstract

In this paper rigorous path integral treatments are presented of free motion on the Poincare disc, the Poincare upper half-plane and on the hyperbolic strip, three spaces which are analytically equivalent to each other. Whereas the path integral treatments on the disc and on the strip are new, two further path integral treatments are discussed for the Poincare upper half-plane to the existing one. All the calculations are mainly based on Fourier-expansions of the Feynman kernels which can be easily performed. The remaining path integrals on D, U and S can be reduced to the path integral problems on the pseudosphere Δ2, Liouville quantum mechanics and the modified Poschl-Teller potential problem, respectively, where the results by means of path integrals are known. The corresponding normalized wave-functions and the energy-spectrum are derived. The energy-spectra are the same in all three spaces and read E = (1/2m) (p2 + 1/4) (p -momentum). The “zero-point” energy E0 = 1/8m is discussed which can be interpreted in terms of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation. The equivalences between the Feynman kernels on Δ2, D, U and S are also discussed.