QUANTUM MECHANICS AS A SPONTANEOUSLY BROKEN GAUGE THEORY ON A U(1) GERBE

DOI10.1142/S0219887808002722zbMATH Open1157.81014arXiv0708.0720MaRDI QIDQ3545694FDOQ3545694

J. M. Isidro

Publication date: 11 December 2008

Published in: International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Any quantum-mechanical system possesses a U(1) gerbe naturally defined on configuration space. Acting on Feynman's kernel exp(iS/h), this U(1) symmetry allows one to arbitrarily pick the origin for the classical action S, on a point-by-point basis on configuration space. This is equivalent to the statement that quantum mechanics is a U(1) gauge theory. Unlike Yang-Mills theories, however, the geometry of this gauge symmetry is not given by a fibre bundle, but rather by a gerbe. Since this gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken, an analogue of the Higgs mechanism must be present. We prove that a Heisenberg-like noncommutativity for the space coordinates is responsible for the breaking. This allows to interpret the noncommutativity of space coordinates as a Higgs mechanism on the quantum-mechanical U(1) gerbe.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0708.0720

zbMATH Keywords

quantum mechanicsgauge theorygerbeHiggs mechanism

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Issues of holonomy in differential geometry (53C29) Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40) Unified quantum theories (81V22) Noncommutative geometry in quantum theory (81R60)

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• Duality of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">x</mml:mi></mml:math>and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">ψ</mml:mi></mml:math>and a Statistical Interpretation of Space in Quantum Mechanics

Cited In (2)

• An entropic picture of emergent quantum mechanics
• RICCI FLOW, QUANTUM MECHANICS AND GRAVITY

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