Quantum superposition principle and geometry

DOI10.1007/S10714-006-0257-6zbMATH Open1101.81003arXivquant-ph/0407242OpenAlexW1991711238WikidataQ57564388 ScholiaQ57564388MaRDI QIDQ851041FDOQ851041

Authors: Alejandro Corichi 

Publication date: 9 November 2006

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: If one takes seriously the postulate of quantum mechanics in which physical states are rays in the standard Hilbert space of the theory, one is naturally lead to a geometric formulation of the theory. Within this formulation of quantum mechanics, the resulting description is very elegant from the geometrical viewpoint, since it allows to cast the main postulates of the theory in terms of two geometric structures, namely a symplectic structure and a Riemannian metric. However, the usual superposition principle of quantum mechanics is not naturally incorporated, since the quantum state space is non-linear. In this note we offer some steps to incorporate the superposition principle within the geometric description. In this respect, we argue that it is necessary to make the distinction between a 'projective superposition principle' and a 'decomposition principle' that extend the standard superposition principle. We illustrate our proposal with two very well known examples, namely the spin 1/2 system and the two slit experiment, where the distinction is clear from the physical perspective. We show that the two principles have also a different mathematical origin within the geometrical formulation of the theory.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0407242

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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 714408

zbMATH Keywords

Hilbert spaceQuantum stateSuperposition principle

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Geometry and quantization, symplectic methods (81S10) Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
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• Quantization of non-standard Hamiltonian systems
• Geometric quantum mechanics
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• Geometrization of quantum mechanics
• Naturalness of the space of states in quantum mechanics

Cited In (7)

• Quantic superpositions and the geometry of complex Hilbert spaces
• The pure state space of quantum mechanics as Hermitian symmetric space
• Extension of the quantum mechanical principle of superposition to non-identical states with short life times
• Superposition principle in quantum theory
• A coherent superposition principle and the Hilbertian quantum theory
• Noncommutative coordinate picture of the quantum phase space
• Superposition as a relativistic filter

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