Classical Structures in Quantum Mechanics and Applications

TL;DR

This paper reviews classical structures in quantum mechanics, focusing on phase-space formalisms like Weyl-Wigner and Coherent States, and explores their modern applications such as modular variables and weak values.

Contribution

It provides a compact, coordinate-independent review of phase-space formalisms and discusses their recent applications in quantum mechanics.

Findings

Comparison of Weyl-Wigner and Coherent State formalisms

Application to modular variables and weak values

Enhanced understanding of quantum phase-space structures

Abstract

The theory of Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics was created (or discovered) back in the 1920's mainly by Schr\"odinger and Heisenberg, but it is fair enough to say that a more modern and unified approach to the subject was introduced by Dirac and Jordan with their (intrinsic) Transformation Theory. In his famous text book on quantum mechanics [1], Dirac introduced his well-known bra and ket notation and a view that even Einstein (who was, as well known, very critical towards the general quantum physical world-view) considered the most elegant presentation of the theory at that time[2]. One characteristic of this formulation is that the observables of position and momentum are truly treated equally so that an intrinsic phase-space approach seems a natural course to be taken. In fact, we may distinguish at least two different quantum mechanical approaches to the structure of the quantum phase space: The Weyl-Wigner (WW) formalism and the advent of the theory of Coherent States (CS). The Weyl-Wigner formalism has had many applications ranging from the discussion of the Classical/Quantum Mechanical transition and quantum chaos to signal analysis[3,4]. The Coherent State formalism had a profound impact on Quantum Optics and during the course of time has found applications in diverse areas such as geometric quantization, wavelet and harmonic analysis [5]. In this chapter we present a compact review of these formalisms (with also a more intrinsic and coordinate independent notation) towards some non-standard and up-to-date applications such as modular variables and weak values.