Self-adjoint time operators and invariant subspaces (Q931887)

In this paper, the question of existence of selfadjoint time operators for unitary evolutions in classical and quantum mechanics is revisited on the basis of Halmos-Helson theory of invariant subspaces, Sz.-Nagy-Foiaş dilation theory and Misra-Prigogine-Courbage theory of irreversibility. It is shown that the existence of selfadjoint time operators is equivalent to the intertwining property of the evolution plus the existence of simply invariant subspaces or rigid operator-valued functions for its Sz.-Nagy-Foiaş functional model. Similar equivalent conditions are given in terms of intrinsic randomness in the context of statistical mechanics. The rest of the contents are mainly a unifying review of the subject scattered throughout an unconnected literature. A well-known extensive set of equivalent conditions is derived from the above results; such conditions are written in terms of Schrödinger couples, the Weyl commutation relation, incoming and outgoing subspaces, innovation processes, Lax-Phillips scattering, translation and spectral representations, and spectral properties. Also the natural procedure dealing with symmetric time operators in standard quantum mechanics involving their selfadjoint extensions is illustrated by considering the quantum Aharonov-Bohm time-of-arrival operator.