Discrete time quantum mechanics

DOI10.1016/0898-1221(94)00198-7MaRDI QIDQ1339293zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Carl M. Bender, Lawrence R. Mead, Kimball A. Milton

Publication date 24 April 1995

Published in Computers & Mathematics with Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9305246

zbMATH Keywords

Dirac equationdiscrete-time operator equationsfinite element methodHamiltonian systemsSchwinger modelspin systemsspinor field theoriesYang-Mills equations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

PDEs in connection with quantum mechanics (35Q40) Finite element, Rayleigh-Ritz and Galerkin methods for initial value and initial-boundary value problems involving PDEs (65M60) Applications to the sciences (65Z05) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Yang-Mills and other gauge theories in quantum field theory (81T13)

Abstract: This paper summarizes a research program that has been underway for a decade. The objective is to find a fast and accurate scheme for solving quantum problems which does not involve a Monte Carlo algorithm. We use an alternative strategy based on the method of finite elements. We are able to formulate fully consistent quantum-mechanical systems directly on a lattice in terms of operator difference equations. One advantage of this discretized formulation of quantum mechanics is that the ambiguities associated with operator ordering are eliminated. Furthermore, the scheme provides an easy way in which to obtain the energy levels of the theory numerically. A generalized version of this discretization scheme can be applied to quantum field theory problems. The difficulties normally associated with fermion doubling are eliminated. Also, one can incorporate local gauge invariance in the finite-element formulation. Results for some field theory models are summarized. In particular, we review the calculation of the anomaly in two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (the Schwinger model). Finally, we discuss nonabelian gauge theories.

Review text

The paper presents schemes for solving quantum problems based on the finite element method. The authors discuss one-particle quantum system discrete-time operator equations, Hamiltonian systems (such as spin systems), problems of systems with two degrees of freedom and with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, scalar quantum field theory, Dirac equation and spinor field theories, and quantum field theory exhibiting local gauge invariance (the Schwinger model, Dirac equation, Yang-Mills equations).

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Cites work

• Continuous Hahn polynomials
• Continuous Hahn polynomials and the Heisenberg algebra
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3537179 (Why is no real title available?)
• Polynomials and operator orderings
• The Hahn and Meixner polynomials of an imaginary argument and some of their applications

Cited in

(20)

• Discrete quantum causal dynamics
• Discrete time and intrinsic length in quantum mechanics
• Absence of species doubling in finite-element quantum electrodynamics
• Finite-element lattice Hamiltonian matrix elements: Anharmonic oscillators
• Dynamical difference equations
• Linear operators associated with differential and difference systems: what is different?
• Eigenfunctions expansion for discrete symplectic systems with general linear dependence on spectral parameter
• Underdetermined systems of partial differential equations
• On nonlocal complexified Schrödinger equation and emergence of discrete quantum mechanics
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4011876 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 48752 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1487823 (Why is no real title available?)
• Discrete symplectic systems, boundary triplets, and self-adjoint extensions
• Discrete self-adjointness and quantum dynamics. Travel times
• Quantized alternating integrable mappings
• Discrete quantum mechanics
• Discrete field theory: symmetries and conservation laws
• A discrete geometric approach to solving time independent Schrödinger equation
• Elementary quantum mechanics in a space-time lattice
• Feynman checkers: lattice quantum field theory with real time

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