Orthogonal polynomials of several discrete variables and the 3nj-Wigner symbols: applications to spin networks
M. Lorente
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LaTex, 4 pages; Communication presented to the XXIV International Congress on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics, Paris, July 2002 (late submission to arXiv.org)
The use of orthogonal polynomials for integral models on the lattice is applied to the 3nj-symbols that appear in the coupling of several angular momenta. These symbols are connected to the Ponzano-Regge method to solve the Einstein equations on a discrete Riemannian manifold.
We derive a new asymptotic formula for the Wigner $9j$-symbol, in the limit of one small and eight large angular momenta, using a novel gauge-invariant factorization for the asymptotic solution of a set of coupled wave equations. Our factorization eliminates the geometric phases completely, using gauge-invariant non-canonical coordinates, parallel transports of spinors, and quantum rotation matrices. Our derivation generalizes to higher $3nj$-symbols. We display without proof some new asymptotic formulas for the $12j$-symbol and the $15j$-symbol in the appendices. This work contributes a new a…
We present new asymptotic formulas for the Wigner $15j$-symbol with two, three, or four small quantum numbers, and provide numerical evidence of their validity. These formulas are of the WKB form and are of a similar nature as the Ponzano-Regge formula for the Wigner $6j$-symbol. They are expressed in terms of edge lengths and angles of geometrical figures associated with angular momentum vectors. In particular, the formulas for the $15j$-symbol with two, three, and four small quantum numbers are based on the geometric figures of the $9j$-, $6j$-, and $3j$-symbols, respectively, The geometric …
We derive the leading asymptotic limit of the Wigner $3j$-symbol from a stationary phase approximation of a twelve dimensional integral, obtained from an inner product between two exact Bargmann wavefunctions. We show that, by the construction of the Bargmann inner product, the stationary phase conditions have a geometric description in terms of the Hopf fibration of ${\mathbb C}^6$ into ${\mathbb R}^3 \times {\mathbb R}^3 \times {\mathbb R}^3$. In addition, we find that, except for the usual modification of the quantum numbers by 1/2, the imaginary part of the logarithm of a Bargmann wavefunc…
In this paper we employ a novel technique combining the Euler Maclaurin formula with the saddle point approximation method to obtain the asymptotic behavior (in the limit of large representation index $J$) of generic Wigner matrix elements $D^{J}_{MM'}(g)$. We use this result to derive asymptotic formulae for the character $χ^J(g)$ of an SU(2) group element and for Wigner's $3j$ symbol. Surprisingly, given that we perform five successive layers of approximations, the asymptotic formula we obtain for $χ^J(g)$ is in fact exact. This result provides a non trivial example of a Duistermaat-Heckman …
A new uniform asymptotic approximation for the Wigner $6j$ symbol is given in terms of Wigner rotation matrices ($d$-matrices). The approximation is uniform in the sense that it applies for all values of the quantum numbers, even those near caustics. The derivation of the new approximation is not given, but the geometrical ideas supporting it are discussed and numerical tests are presented, including comparisons with the exact $6j$-symbol and with the Ponzano-Regge approximation.
We derive an asymptotic formula for the Wigner $12j$ symbol, in the limit of one small and 11 large angular momenta. There are two kinds of asymptotic formulas for the $12j$ symbol with one small angular momentum. We present the first kind of formula in this paper. Our derivation relies on the techniques developed in the semiclassical analysis of the Wigner $9j$ symbol [L. Yu and R. G. Littlejohn, Phys. Rev. A 83, 052114 (2011)], where we used a gauge-invariant form of the multicomponent WKB wave-functions to derive asymptotic formulas for the $9j$ symbol with small and large angular momenta. …
Yu and Littlejohn recently studied in arXiv:1104.1499 some asymptotics of Wigner symbols with some small and large angular momenta. They found that in this regime the essential information is captured by the geometry of a tetrahedron, and gave new formulae for 9j, 12j and 15j-symbols. We present here an alternative derivation which leads to a simpler formula, based on the use of the Ponzano-Regge formula for the relevant tetrahedron. The approach is generalized to Wigner 3nj-symbols with some large and small angular momenta, where more than one tetrahedron is needed, leading to new asymptotics…
There are two types of asymptotic formulas for the $12j$ symbol with one small and 11 large angular momenta. We have derived the first type of formula previously in [L. Yu, Phys. Rev. A84 022101 (2011)]. We will derive the second type in this paper. We find that this second asymptotic formula for the $12j$ symbol is expressed in terms of the vector diagram associated with two $6j$ symbols, namely, the vector diagram of two adjacent tetrahedra sharing a common face. As a result, two sets of Ponzano-Regge phases appear in the asymptotic formula. This work contributes another asymptotic formula o…
The Weyl-Wigner-Moyal formalism is developed for spin by means of a correspondence between spherical harmonics and spherical harmonic tensor operators. The analogue of the Moyal expansion is developed for the Weyl symbol of the product of two operators in terms of the symbols for the individual operators, and it is shown that in the classical limit, the Weyl symbol for a commutator equals $i$ times the Poisson bracket of the corresponding Weyl symbols. It is also found that, to the same order, there is no correction in the symbol for the anticommutator.
We relate quantum 6J symbols of various types (quantum versions of Wigner and Racah symbols) to Ocneanu cells associated with AN Dynkin diagrams. We check explicitly the algebraic structure of the associated quantum groupoids and analyze several examples (A3, A4). Some features relative to cells associated with more general ADE diagrams are also discussed.
The 3-regular graphs representing sums over products of Wigner 3-jm symbols are drawn on up to 12 vertices (complete to 18j-symbols), and the irreducible graphs on up to 14 vertices (complete to 21j-symbols). The Lederer-Coxeter-Frucht notations of the Hamiltonian cycles in these graphs are tabulated to support search operations.
The semiclassical mechanics of the Wigner 6j-symbol is examined from the standpoint of WKB theory for multidimensional, integrable systems, to explore the geometrical issues surrounding the Ponzano-Regge formula. The relations among the methods of Roberts and others for deriving the Ponzano-Regge formula are discussed, and a new approach, based on the recoupling of four angular momenta, is presented. A generalization of the Yutsis-type of spin network is developed for this purpose. Special attention is devoted to symplectic reduction, the reduced phase space of the 6j-symbol (the 2-sphere of K…
The Wigner $3j$ symbols of the quantum angular momentum theory are related to the vector coupling or Clebsch-Gordan coefficients and to the Hahn and dual Hahn polynomials of the discrete orthogonal hyperspherical family, of use in discretization approximations. We point out the important role of the Regge symmetries for defining the screen where images of the coefficients are projected, and for discussing their asymptotic properties and semiclassical behavior. Recursion relationships are formulated as eigenvalue equations, and exploited both for computational purposes and for physical interpre…
The Weyl quantization of classical observables on the torus (as phase space) without regularity assumptions is explicitly computed. The equivalence class of symbols yielding the same Weyl operator is characterized. The Heisenberg equation for the dynamics of general quantum observables is written through the Moyal brackets on the torus and the support of the Wigner transform is characterized. Finally, a dequantization procedure is introduced that applies, for instance, to the Pauli matrices. As a result we obtain the corresponding classical symbols.
We present new sum rules for $3jm$ coefficients, which involve, in addition to the usual weighting factor $(2j + 1)$ where $j$ is an angular momentum, the quantity $[j(j + 1)]^k$ with $k \ge 1$. The sum rules appear for instance in the statistical modeling of rotational spectra within the theory of moments, and enable one to deduce the expectation values of $r^k$ (used in the theory of Stark effect for hydrogenic ions) in parabolic coordinates from the expectation values of $r^k$ in spherical coordinates.
In this paper we present a Maple library (MOPs) for computing Jack, Hermite, Laguerre, and Jacobi multivariate polynomials, as well as eigenvalue statistics for the Hermite, Laguerre, and Jacobi ensembles of Random Matrix theory. We also compute multivariate hypergeometric functions, and offer both symbolic and numerical evaluations for all these quantities. We prove that all algorithms are well-defined, analyze their complexity, and illustrate their performance in practice. Finally, we also present a few of the possible applications of this library.
We examine the affine Wigner distribution from a quantization perspective with an emphasis on the underlying group structure. One of our main results expresses the scalogram as (affine) convolution of affine Wigner distributions. We strive to unite the literature on affine Wigner distributions and we provide the connection to the Mellin transform in a rigorous manner. Moreover, we present an affine ambiguity function and show how this can be used to illuminate properties of the affine Wigner distribution. In contrast with the usual Wigner distribution, we demonstrate that the affine Wigner dis…
We propose a new version of Wigner-Weyl calculus for tight-binding lattice models. It allows to express various physical quantities through Weyl symbols of operators and Green's functions. In particular, Hall conductivity in the presence of varying and arbitrarily strong magnetic field is represented using the proposed formalism as a topological invariant.
It is shown that a $N\times N$ real symmetric [complex hermitian] positive definite matrix $V$ is congruent to a diagonal matrix modulo a pseudo-orthogonal [pseudo-unitary] matrix in $SO(m,n)$ [ $SU(m,n)$], for any choice of partition $N=m+n$. It is further shown that the method of proof in this context can easily be adapted to obtain a rather simple proof of Williamson's theorem which states that if $N$ is even then $V$ is congruent also to a diagonal matrix modulo a symplectic matrix in $Sp(N,{\cal R})$ [$Sp(N,{\cal C})$]. Applications of these results considered include a generalization of …
The contribution of Jacques Raynal to angular-momentum theory is highly valuable. In the present article, I intend to recall the main aspects of his work related to Wigner $3j$ symbols. It is well known that the latter can be expressed with a hypergeometric series. The polynomial zeros of the $3j$ coefficients were initially characterized by the number of terms of the series minus one, which is the degree of the coefficient. A detailed study of the zeros of the $3j$ coefficient with respect to the degree $n$ for $J = a + b + c \leq 240$ ($a$, $b$ and $c$ being the angular momenta in the first …
In this paper we give a direct proof of the Ponzano-Regge asymptotic formula for the Wigner 6j symbol starting from Racah's single sum formula. Our method treats halfinteger and integer spins on the same footing. The generalization to Minkowskian tetrahedra is direct. This result should be relevant for the introduction of renormalization scales in spin foam models.
We study the SL(2,C) Clebsch-Gordan coefficients appearing in the lorentzian EPRL spin foam amplitudes for loop quantum gravity. We show how the amplitudes decompose into SU(2) nj-symbols at the vertices and integrals over boosts at the edges. The integrals define edge amplitudes that can be evaluated analytically using and adapting results in the literature, leading to a pure state sum model formulation. This procedure introduces virtual representations which, in a manner reminiscent to virtual momenta in Feynman amplitudes, are off-shell of the simplicity constraints present in the theory, b…
We study the fluctuations of eigenvalues from a class of Wigner random matrices that generalize the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble. We begin by considering an $n \times n$ matrix from the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) or Gaussian symplectic ensemble (GSE) and let $x_k$ denote eigenvalue number $k$. Under the condition that both $k$ and $n-k$ tend to infinity with $n$, we show that $x_k$ is normally distributed in the limit. We also consider the joint limit distribution of $m$ eigenvalues from the GOE or GSE with similar conditions on the indices. The result is an $m$-dimensional normal dist…
Several well-known results from the random matrix theory, such as Wigner's law and the Marchenko--Pastur law, can be interpreted (and proved) in terms of non-backtracking walks on a certain graph. Orthogonal polynomials with respect to the limiting spectral measure play a role in this approach.
Random matrix ensembles with orthogonal and unitary symmetry correspond to the cases of real symmetric and Hermitian random matrices respectively. We show that the probability density function for the corresponding spacings between consecutive eigenvalues can be written exactly in the Wigner surmise type form $a(s) e^{-b(s)}$ for $a$ simply related to a Painlevé transcendent and $b$ its anti-derivative. A formula consisting of the sum of two such terms is given for the symplectic case (Hermitian matrices with real quaternion elements).
We consider asymptotics of orthogonal polynomial ensembles, in the macroscopic and mesoscopic scales. We prove both global and local laws of large numbers (analogous to the recently proven local semicircle law for Wigner matrices) under fairly weak conditions on the underlying measure $μ$. Our main tools are a general concentration inequality for determinantal point processes with a kernel that is a self-adjoint projection, and a strengthening of the Nevai condition from the theory of orthogonal polynomials.
The corrected triple sum expression of Ališauskas (1987) for the recoupling (Racah) coefficients (6j-symbols) of the symmetric (most degenerate) representations of the orthogonal groups SO(n) (previously derived from the fourfold sum expression of Ališauskas also related to result of Hormeßand Junker 1999) is rearranged into three new different double sum expressions (related to the hypergeometric Kampé de Fériet type series) and a new triple sum expression with preferable summation condition. The Regge type symmetry of special 6j-symbols of the orthogonal groups SO(n) in terms of special Kamp…
We obtain asymptotics in n for the n-dimensional Hankel determinant whose symbol is the Gaussian multiplied by a step-like function. We use Riemann-Hilbert analysis of the related system of orthogonal polynomials to obtain our results.
We show explicitly that all 2nd order superintegrable systems in 2 dimensions are limiting cases of a single system: the generic 3-parameter potential on the 2-sphere, S9 in our listing. We extend the Wigner-Inönü method of Lie algebra contractions to contractions of quadratic algebras and show that all of the quadratic symmetry algebras of these systems are contractions of that of S9. Amazingly, all of the relevant contractions of these superintegrable systems on flat space and the sphere are uniquely induced by the well known Lie algebra contractions of e(2) and so(3). By contracting functio…
We study averages of multiplicative eigenvalue statistics in ensembles of orthogonal Haar distributed matrices, which can alternatively be written as Toeplitz+Hankel determinants. We obtain new asymptotics for symbols with Fisher-Hartwig singularities in cases where some of the singularities merge together, and for symbols with a gap or an emerging gap. We obtain these asymptotics by relying on known analogous results in the unitary group and on asymptotics for associated orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle. As consequences of our results, we derive asymptotics for gap probabilities in t…
We compute the average characteristic polynomial of the hermitised product of $M$ real or complex Wigner matrices of size $N\times N$ and the average of the characteristic polynomial of a product of $M$ such Wigner matrices times the characteristic polynomial of the conjugate matrix. Surprisingly, the results agree with that of the product of $M$ real or complex Ginibre matrices at finite-$N$, which have i.i.d. Gaussian entries. For the latter the average characteristic polynomial yields the orthogonal polynomial for the singular values of the product matrix, whereas the product of the two cha…