A classification of periodic time-dependent generalized harmonic oscillators using a Hamiltonian action of the Schr\"odinger-Virasoro group

TL;DR

This paper classifies periodic time-dependent generalized harmonic oscillators using the Schr"odinger-Virasoro group, linking their invariants and monodromy operators to the orbit structure of Hill operators under the Virasoro group.

Contribution

It extends Kirillov's orbit classification to a subspace of Schr"odinger operators, connecting invariants of oscillators to the Schr"odinger-Virasoro group actions.

Findings

Classification of orbits via stabilizers and monodromy operators.

Connection between Ermakov-Lewis invariants and group actions.

Extension of Kirillov's results to time-dependent harmonic oscillators.

Abstract

In the wake of a preceding article \cite{RogUnt06} introducing the Schr\"odinger-Virasoro group, we study its affine action on a space of $(1+1)$-dimensional Schr\"odinger operators with time- and space-dependent potential $V$ periodic in time. We focus on the subspace corresponding to potentials that are at most quadratic in the space coordinate, which is in some sense the natural quantization of the space of Hill (Sturm-Liouville) operators on the one-dimensional torus. The orbits in this subspace have finite codimension, and their classification by studying the stabilizers can be obtained by extending Kirillov's results on the orbits of the space of Hill operators under the Virasoro group. We then explain the connection to the theory of Ermakov-Lewis invariants for time-dependent harmonic oscillators. These exact adiabatic invariants behave covariantly under the action of the Schr\"odinger-Virasoro group, which allows a natural classification of the orbits in terms of a monodromy operator on $L^2(\R)$ which is closely related to the monodromy matrix for the corresponding Hill operator.