External gauge field-coupled quantum dynamics: Gauge choices, Heisenberg algebra representations and gauge invariance in general, and the Landau problem in particular

DOI10.1142/S0129055X23500149zbMATH Open1522.81155OpenAlexW4376254289MaRDI QIDQ6078043FDOQ6078043

Authors Jan Govaerts 

Publication date 27 September 2023

Published in Reviews in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.13122

zbMATH Keywords

gauge invariancequantum dynamicsgauge transformationsexternal classical background gauge fieldHeisenberg algebra and representationsquantum Landau problem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geometry and quantization, symplectic methods (81S10) Other fundamental interactions in quantum theory (81V19) Canonical quantization (81S08)

Abstract: Even though its classical equations of motion are then left invariant, when an action is redefined by an additive total derivative or divergence term (in time, in the case of a mechanical system) such a transformation induces nontrivial consequences for the system's canonical phase space formulation. This is even more true and then in more subtle ways for the canonically quantised dynamics, with in particular an induced transformation in the unitary configuration space representation of the Heisenberg algebra being used for the quantum system. When coupled to a background gauge field, such considerations become crucial for a proper understanding of the consequences for the system's quantum dynamics of gauge transformations of that classical external background gauge field, while under such transformations the system's degrees of freedom, abstract quantum states and quantum dynamics are certainly strictly invariant. After a detailed analysis of these different points in a general context, these are then illustrated specifically in the case of the quantum Landau problem with its classical external background magnetic vector potential for which the most general possible parametrised gauge choice is implemented herein. The latter discussion aims as well to clarify some perplexing statements in the literature regarding the status of gauge choices to be made for the magnetic vector potential for that quantum system. The role of the global space-time symmetries of the Landau problem and their gauge invariant Noether charges is then also emphasized.

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Cites Work

• A soluble gauge model with Gribov-type copies
• Gauge invariance of Landau levels
• Nonlocal global symmetries of a free scalar field in a bounded spatial domain
• The issue of gauge choice in the Landau problem and the physics of canonical and mechanical orbital angular momenta
• Topology classes of flat U(1) bundles and diffeomorphic covariant representations of the Heisenberg algebra
• Variations on the planar Landau problem: canonical transformations, a purely linear potential and the half-plane

Cited In (4)

• Generators of dynamical symmetries and the correct gauge transformation in the Landau level problem: use of pseudomomentum and pseudo-angular momentum
• Variations on the planar Landau problem: canonical transformations, a purely linear potential and the half-plane
• The ``forgotten pseudomomenta and gauge changes in generalized Landau level problems: spatially nonuniform magnetic and temporally varying electric fields
• Gauge invariance of Landau levels

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