Wigner quantization of Hamiltonians describing harmonic oscillators coupled by a general interaction matrix (Q970297)

A system of \(n\) one-dimensional harmonic oscillators interacting with each other can be described in its more general form as \(\hat H={\hat r}^{*} V \hat r\) where \({\hat r}^{t}\) is the vector \((\hat p_1^*,\dots,\hat p_n^*, \hat q_1^*,\dots,\hat q_n^*)\), with \(\hat p_i\) and \(\hat q_j\) respectively the position and momentum operators of the oscillator and location \(r\), and \(V\) is a positive definite matrix describing the coupling. In the paper under review it is assumed that there is no coupling involving the momentum operators. This means that the Hamiltonian can be written as \[ \hat H={1\over{2m}}(\hat p_1^*,\dots,\hat p_n^*)\begin{pmatrix}\hat p_1\\ \vdots\\ \hat p_n\end{pmatrix}+ {m\over 2}(\hat q_1^*,\dots,\hat q_n^*)A\begin{pmatrix}\hat q_1\\ \vdots\\ \hat q_n\end{pmatrix} \] where the matrix \(A\) is supposed to be real, symmetric and definite positive. The position and momentum operators are supposed to be self-adjoint, so \(\hat p_i^*=\hat p_i\) and \(\hat q_j^*=\hat q_j\) for all \(i\) and \(j\). Thus the Hamiltonian is \[ \hat H={1\over{2m}}\sum_{r=1}^n\hat p_r^2+{m\over 2}\sum_{r,s=1}^n a_{r,s}\hat q_r\hat q_s \] where \(A=(a_{ij})\). The spectrum of this Hamiltonian is of great interest since it gives all the possible values that might arise when measuring the energy of the system. The authors now require the equivalence of Hamilton's equations \(\dot{\hat p_r}= -{{\partial H}\over {\partial\hat q_r}}\), \(\dot{\hat q_r}= -{{\partial H}\over {\partial\hat p_r}}\) and the Heisenberg equations \(\dot{\hat p_r}={i\over\hbar}[\hat H,\hat p_r]\), \(\dot{\hat q_r}={i\over\hbar}[\hat H,\hat q_r]\). The resulting compatibility conditions turn to be \[ [\hat H,\hat q_r]=-{{i\hbar}\over m}\hat p_r,\quad[\hat H,\hat p_r]=i\hbar m \sum_{s=1}^n a_{rs}\hat q_s. \] After diagonalizing the matrix \(A\) and using this to introduce normal coordinates and momenta (\(\hat P_j\) and \(\hat Q_j\), respectively), the Hamiltonian is transformed into \[ \hat H={1\over {2m}}\sum\hat P_j^2+{m\over 2}\sum\mu_j\hat Q_j^2 \] where the \(\mu_j\)'s are the eigenvalues of \(A\). The compatibility conditions in terms of the new operators adopts the form \([\hat H,\hat Q_j]=-{{i\hbar}\over m}\hat P_j\), \([\hat H,\hat P_j]=i\hbar m\mu_j\hat Q_j\). And introducing now the new operators \[ a^{\pm}_j=\sqrt{{m\sqrt{\mu_j}}\over{2\hbar}}\hat Q_j\mp {i\over{2\hbar m\sqrt{\mu_j}}}\hat P_j. \] The Hamiltonian can be rewritten as \[ \hat H=\sum{{h\sqrt{\mu_j}}\over 2}\{a_j^+,a_j^-\}= \sum{{h\sqrt{\mu_j}}\over 2}(a_j^+a_j^-+a_j^-a_j^+). \] Thus the Wigner quantization is reduced to the problem of finding operators \(a^{\pm}\), acting in a certain Hilbert space, and satisfying \[ \sum_j [\sqrt{\mu_j}\{a_j^+,a_j^-\},a_k^{\pm}]=\pm 2\sqrt{\mu_k}a_k^{\pm}. \] For such systems it is known that there are solutions in terms of superalgebra generators (related to the superalgebras \(\mathfrak{osp}(1| 2n)\) and \(\mathfrak{gl}(1| n)\).) But not all solutions are known for \(n>1\) and in fact this is the ambience in which the present paper lives. To give an idea on how Lie superalgebras solutions can be given, consider the basis elements \(e_{jk}\) with \(j,k=0,1\dots,n\) of \(\mathfrak{gl}(1| n)\). The odd part of the superalgebra is generated by \(e_{j0}\) and \(e_{0j}\) with \(j>0\). We assume that \(A\) assumes the specific form \(A=\omega^2 I+c M\). Then the solutions are of the form \[ a_j^-=\sqrt{{{2|\beta_j|}\over{\sqrt{\omega^2+c\lambda_j}}}}e_{j0},\quad a_j^+=\text{sign}(\beta_j)\sqrt{{{2|\beta_j|}\over{\sqrt{\omega^2+c\lambda_j}}}}e_{0j} \] for certain scalar \(\beta_j\). Solutions coming from the \(\mathfrak{osp}(1| 2n)\) superalgebra are also obtained. Furthermore, in order to study the spectrum of the Hamiltonian in terms of the \(\mathfrak{gl}(1| n)\) and \(\mathfrak{osp}(1| 2n)\) solutions it is necessary to work with the \(V(p)\) representation of these superalgebras (well described in the paper).