Discrete time quantum mechanics

DOI10.1016/0898-1221(94)00198-7zbMATH Open0810.65124arXivhep-ph/9305246OpenAlexW2067545246MaRDI QIDQ1339293FDOQ1339293

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

Publication date: 24 April 1995

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

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.

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

zbMATH Keywords

finite element methodHamiltonian systemsDirac equationSchwinger modelspin systemsYang-Mills equationsdiscrete-time operator equationsspinor field theories

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) 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) Applications to the sciences (65Z05)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Continuous Hahn polynomials
• The Hahn and Meixner polynomials of an imaginary argument and some of their applications
• Continuous Hahn polynomials and the Heisenberg algebra
• Polynomials and operator orderings

Cited In (16)

• Discrete quantum mechanics
• Discrete symplectic systems, boundary triplets, and self-adjoint extensions
• Dynamical difference equations
• Discrete field theory: symmetries and conservation laws
• 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
• Discrete self-adjointness and quantum dynamics. Travel times
• Linear operators associated with differential and difference systems: what is different?
• Quantized alternating integrable mappings
• Eigenfunctions expansion for discrete symplectic systems with general linear dependence on spectral parameter
• Underdetermined systems of partial differential equations
• Elementary quantum mechanics in a space-time lattice
• Feynman checkers: lattice quantum field theory with real time
• On nonlocal complexified Schrödinger equation and emergence of discrete quantum mechanics
• Discrete quantum causal dynamics

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