The Hamilton-Jacobi method of constrained systems is discussed. The equations of motion of a singular system with time dependent constraints are obtained as total differential equations in many variables. The integrability conditions for the relativistic particle in a plane wave lead us to obtain the canonical phase-space coordinates with out using any gauge fixing condition. As a result of the quantization, we obtain the Klein-Gordon theory for a particle in a plane wave. The path integral quantization for this system is obtained using the canonical path integral formulation method.
The purpose of this review is to give the most popular description of the scheme of quantization of relativistic fields that was named relativistic canonical quantization (RCQ). I do not give here the full exact account of this scheme. But with the help of this review any physicist, even not a specialist in the relativistic quantum theory, will be able to get a general view of the content of RCQ, of its connection with other known approaches, of its novelty and of its fruitfulness.
The canonical quantization of the tachyon field is suggested. Quantization is based on the conception of stable and unstable components of the tachyon degrees of freedom.
The connection between the canonical and the path integral formulations of Einstein's gravitational field is discussed using the Hamilton - Jacobi method. Unlike conventional methods, it is shown that our path integral method leads to obtain the measure of integration with no $δ$- functions, no need to fix any gauge and so no ambiguous deteminants will appear.
It is shown that the algebra of diffeomorphism-invariant charges of the Nambu-Goto string cannot be quantized in the framework of canonical quantization. The argument is shown to be independent of the dimension of the underlying Minkowski space.
The path integral formulation of constrained systems leads to obtain the equations of motion as total differential equations in many variables. If these equations are integrable then one can constuct a valid and a canonical phase space coordinates. The path integral is obtained as an integration over the canonical phase space coordinates. This approach is applied to obtain the path integral for three singular systems and it is shown that in our formulation there is no need to distinguish between first and second-class constraints, no need for fixing any gauge, as will as no need to enlarge the…
Following Dirac, the rules of canonical quantization include classical and quantum contact transformations of classical and quantum phase space variables. While arbitrary classical canonical coordinate transformations exist that is not the case for some analogous quantum canonical coordinate transformations. This failure is due to the rigid connection of quantum variables arising by promoting the corresponding classical variable from a $c$-number to a $q$-number. A different relationship of $c$-numbers and $q$-numbers in the procedures of Enhanced Quantization shows the compatibility of all qu…
The notion of incompressible momentum observables is introduced. It is shown that when the metric in a manifold has a certain form, a set of canonically conjugate variables Xk and Pk in which Pk are incompressible, can be constructed. Based on this set of variables, the quantum mechanical description of the motion of a particle in a manifold, is identical to that associated with the familiar canonically conjugate variables xk and pk in an Euclidean space with Cartesian coordinates. The controversy related to non-uniqueness of momentum operators when the range of a coordinate is a finite interv…
In the paper is presented an invariant quantization procedure of classical mechanics on the phase space over flat configuration space. Then, the passage to an operator representation of quantum mechanics in a Hilbert space over configuration space is derived. An explicit form of position and momentum operators as well as their appropriate ordering in arbitrary curvilinear coordinates is demonstrated. Finally, the extension of presented formalism onto non-flat case and related ambiguities of the process of quantization are discussed.
We investigate the consistency of coherent state (or Berezin-Klauder-Toeplitz, or anti-Wick) quantization in regard to physical observations in the non- relativistic (or Galilean) regime. We compare this procedure with the canonical quantization (on both mathematical and physical levels) and examine whether they are or not equivalent in their predictions: is it possible to dif- ferentiate them on a strictly physical level? As far as only usual dynamical observables (position, momentum, energy, ...) are concerned, the quantization through coherent states is proved to be a perfectly valid altern…
The process of canonical quantization is redefined so that the classical and quantum theories coexist when \hbar>0, just as they do in the real world. This analysis not only supports conventional procedures, it also reveals new quantization procedures that, among several examples, permit nontrivial quantization of scalar field models such as ϕ^4_n, for every spacetime dimension n\ge2.
An elementary presentation of the methods for the canonical quantization of constraint systems with Fermi variables is given. The emphasis is on the subtleties of the construction of an appropriate classical bracket that could be consistently replaced by commutators or anti--commutators of operators, as required by canonical quantization procedure for bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom respectively. I present a consequent canonical quantization of the Dirac field, in which the role of Poincaré invariance is made marginal. This simple example provides an introduction to the Poincaré--free…
In this article the methods of canonical analysis and quantization that were reviewed in the first part of the series are applied to the case of the Dirac field in the presence of electromagnetic interaction. It is shown that the quantization of electrodynamics, which begins with a given Lagrangian and ends by perturbative calculation of scattering probability amplitudes, can be performed in the way that does not employ Poincaré symmetry of space--time at any stage. Also, the causal structure is not needed.
We address a conceptual issue of reconciling the traditional canonical quantization framework of quantum theory with the spatially restricted quantum dynamics and the related spectral problems for confined and global observables of the quantum system.
The relation between a recently proposed path integral for minisuperspaces and different canonical quantizations is established. The step of the procedure where a choice between non equivalent theories is made is identified. Coordinates avoiding such a choice are found for a class of homogeneous cosmologies.
This is an extended version of the talk given by the Author at the 40th Symposium on Mathematical Physics held in Torun, Poland, June 25-28, 2008. We review the methods of canonical quantization of free particle motion on curved submanifolds considered as a system with second class constraints. The work is based on our previous articles, quant-ph/0508044 and quant-ph/0508111. However, some new results are also presented.
Ambiguities arising in different approaches (canonical, quasiclassical, path integration) to quantization are discussed by an example of the mechanics of a point-like particle in the Riemannian space (the geodesic dynamics). A way to select a single rule of quantization is proposed by requirement of a consistency of the quantum mechanics' following from the canonical and quasiclassical approaches. This rule selects also a definition of the path integration. A geometric interpretation of the noncovariance of the canonical Hamilton operator of a particle with respect to the diffeomorphisms of th…
A complete canonical quantization of the SU(3) Skyrme model performed in the collective coordinate formalism in general irreducible representations. In the case of SU(3) the model differs qualitatively in different representations. The Wess-Zumino-Witten term vanishes in all self-adjoint representations in the collective coordinate method for separation of space and time variables. The canonical quantization generates representation dependent quantum mass corrections, which can stabilize the soliton solution. The standard symmetry breaking mass term, which in general leads to representation mi…
Extended $U_e(1)\times U_g(1)$ electromagnetism containing both a photon and a pseudo-photon is introduced at variational level and is justified by the violation of the Bianchi identities in conceptual systems, either in the presence of magnetic monopoles or non-regular external fields, not being accounted by the standard Maxwell Lagrangian. It is carried a dimensional reduction that renders a $U_e(1)\times U_g(1)$ Maxwell-BF type theory and it is considered canonical functional quantization in planar systems which may be relevant in Hall systems.
We address an apparent conflict between the traditional canonical quantization framework of quantum theory and the spatially restricted quantum dynamics, when the translation invariance of the otherwise free quantum system is broken by boundary conditions. By invoking an exemplary case of a particle in an infinite well, we analyze spectral problems for related, confined and global, observables. In particular, we show how one can make sense of various operators pertaining to trapped particles by not ignoring the rest of the real line (e.g., that space which is never occupied by the particle in …
We consider spin system defined on the coadjoint orbit with noncompact symmetry and investigate the quantization. Classical spin with noncompact SU(N,1) symmetry is first formulated as a dynamical system and the constraint analysis is performed to reduce the system from the group space to the coadjoint orbit which is a symplectic manifold with Kahler structure. We achieve this by solving the constraint directly. It is shown that the dynamical variables describing the noncompact spins can be written as functions of canonically conjugate variables and canonical quantization is possible on the re…
We propose a way to encode acceleration directly into quantum fields, establishing a new class of fields. Accelerated quantum fields, as we have named them, have some very interesting properties. The most important is that they provide a mathematically consistent way to quantize space-time in the same way that energy and momentum are quantized in standard quantum field theories.
Various aspects of dissipative and nondissipative decoherence of Rabi oscillations are discussed in the context of field quantization in alternative representations of CCR. Theory is confronted with experiment, and a possibility of more conclusive tests is analyzed.
Conventional canonical quantization procedures directly link various c-number and q-number quantities. Here, we advocate a different association of classical and quantum quantities that renders classical theory a natural subset of quantum theory with \hbar>0, in conformity with the real world wherein nature has chosen \hbar>0 rather than \hbar=0. While keeping the good results of conventional procedures, some examples are presented for which the new procedures offer better results than conventional ones.
Gravity does not naturally fit well with canonical quantization. Affine quantization is an alternative procedure that is similar to canonical quantization but may offer a positive result when canonical quantization fails to offer a positive result. Two simple examples given initially illustrate the power of affine quantization. These examples clearly point toward an affine quantization procedure that vastly simplifies a successful quantization of general relativity.
For a particle moving on a half-line or in an interval the operator $\hat p = - i \partial_x$ is not self-adjoint and thus does not qualify as the physical momentum. Consequently canonical quantization based on $\hat p$ fails. Based upon a new concept for a self-adjoint momentum operator $\hat p_R$, we show that canonical quantization can indeed be implemented on the half-line and on an interval. Both the Hamiltonian $\hat H$ and the momentum operator $\hat p_R$ are endowed with self-adjoint extension parameters that characterize the corresponding domains $D(\hat H)$ and $D(\hat p_R)$ in the H…
Using the method of canonical group quantization, we construct the angular momentum operators associated to configuration spaces with the topology of (i) a sphere and (ii) a projective plane. In the first case, the obtained angular momentum operators are the quantum version of Poincare's vector, i.e., the physically correct angular momentum operators for an electron coupled to the field of a magnetic monopole. In the second case, the obtained operators represent the angular momentum operators of a system of two indistinguishable spin zero quantum particles in three spatial dimensions. We expli…
Adopting a particular approach to fractional calculus, this paper sets out to build up a consistent extension of the Faddeev-Jackiw (or Symplectic) algorithm to carry out the quantization procedure of coarse-grained models in the standard canonical way. In our treatment, we shall work with the Modified Riemman Liouville (MRL) approach for fractional derivatives, where the chain rule is as efficient as it is in the standard differential calculus. We still present a case where we consider the situation of charged particles moving on a plane with velocity $\dot{r}$, subject to an external and int…
The similarity between classical and quantum physics is large enough to make an investigation of quantization methods a worthwhile endeavour. As history has shown, Dirac's canonical quantization method works reasonably well in the case of conventional quantum mechanics over $\mathbb{R}^n$ but it may fail in non-trivial phase spaces and also suffer from ordering problems. Affine quantization is an alternative method, similar to the canonical quantization, that may offer a positive result in situations for which canonical quantization fails. In this paper we revisit the affine quantization metho…
We develop a quantization method, that we name decomposable Weyl quantization, which ensures that the constants of motion of a prescribed finite set of Hamiltonians are preserved by the quantization. Our method is based on a structural analogy between the notions of reduction of the classical phase space and diagonalization of selfadjoint operators. We obtain the spectral decomposition of the emerging quantum constants of motion directly from the quantization process. If a specific quantization is given, we expect that it preserves constants of motion exactly when it coincides with decomposabl…
A theory of nonunitary-invertible as well as unitary canonical transformations is formulated in the context of Weyl's phase space representations. Exact solutions of the transformation kernels and the phase space propagators are given for the three fundamental canonical maps as fractional-linear, gauge and contact (point) transformations. Under the nonlinear maps a phase space representation is mapped to another phase space representation thereby extending the standard concept of covariance. This extended covariance allows Dirac-Jordan transformation theory to naturally emerge from the Hilbert…
The main goal of this work is to study the Dirac oscillator as a quantum field using the canonical formalism of quantum field theory and to develop the canonical quantization procedure for this system in $(1+1)$ and $(3+1)$ dimensions. This is possible because the Dirac oscillator is characterized by the absence of the Klein paradox and by the completeness of its eigenfunctions. We show that the Dirac oscillator field can be seen as constituted by infinite degrees of freedom which are identified as decoupled quantum linear harmonic oscillators. We observe that while for the free Dirac field th…
Canonical quantization may be approached from several different starting points. The usual approaches involve promotion of c-numbers to q-numbers, or path integral constructs, each of which generally succeeds only in Cartesian coordinates. All quantization schemes that lead to Hilbert space vectors and Weyl operators---even those that eschew Cartesian coordinates---implicitly contain a metric on a flat phase space. This feature is demonstrated by studying the classical and quantum ``aggregations'', namely, the set of all facts and properties resident in all classical and quantum theories, resp…
We consider the problem of constrained motion along a conic path under a given external potential function. The model is described as a second-class system capturing the behavior of a certain class of specific quantum field theories. By exhibiting a suitable integration factor, we obtain the general solution for the associated non-linear differential equations. We perform the canonical quantization in a consistent way in terms of the corresponding Dirac brackets. We apply the Dirac-Bergmann algorithm to unravel and classify the whole internal constraints structure inherent to its dynamical Ham…
For particles constrained on a curved surface, how to perform quantization within Dirac's canonical quantization scheme is a long-standing problem. On one hand, Dirac stressed that the Cartesian coordinate system has fundamental importance in passing from the classical Hamiltonian to its quantum mechanical form while preserving the classical algebraic structure between positions, momenta and Hamiltonian to the extent possible. On the other, on the curved surface, we have no exact Cartesian coordinate system within intrinsic geometry. These two facts imply that the three-dimensional Euclidean s…
The rules of canonical quantization normally offer good results, but sometimes they fail, e.g., leading to quantum triviality ($=$ free) for certain examples that are classically nontrivial ($\ne$ free). A new procedure, called Enhanced Quantization, relates classical models with their quantum partners differently and leads to satisfactory results for all systems. This paper features enhanced quantization procedures and provides highlights of two examples, a rotationally symmetric model and an ultralocal scalar model, for which canonical quantization fails while enhanced quantization succeeds.
It has long been recognized that lattice gauge theory formulations, when applied to general relativity, conflict with the invariance of the theory under diffeomorphisms. Additionally, the traditional lattice field theory approach consists in fixing the gauge in a Euclidean action, which does not appear appropriate for general relativity. We analyze discrete lattice general relativity and develop a canonical formalism that allows to treat constrained theories in Lorentzian signature space-times. The presence of the lattice introduces a ``dynamical gauge'' fixing that makes the quantization of t…
