Published December 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

Perturbations of unitary representations of the Galilei group: Mass operators with continuous spectra

  • 1. Department of Physics, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112 (United States)
  • 2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 (United States)

Description

We present a systematic procedure for constructing mass operators with continuous spectra for a system of particles in a manner consistent with Galilean relativity. These mass operators can be used to construct what may be called point-form Galilean dynamics. As in the relativistic case introduced by Dirac, the point-form dynamics for the Galilean case is characterized by both the Hamiltonian and momenta being altered by interactions. An interesting property of such perturbative terms to the Hamiltonian and momentum operators is that, while having well-defined transformation properties under the Galilei group, they also satisfy Maxwell's equations. This result is an alternative to the well-known Feynman-Dyson derivation of Maxwell's equations from non-relativistic quantum physics.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2009.08.009

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/j.aop.2009.08.009;
PII
S0003-4916(09)00156-0;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Annals of Physics (New York)
Journal Volume
324
Journal Issue
12
Journal Page Range
p. 2490-2505
ISSN
0003-4916
CODEN
APNYA6

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
41072265
Subject category
S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS;
Descriptors DEI
HAMILTONIANS; MASS; MAXWELL EQUATIONS; PERTURBATION THEORY; QUANTUM MECHANICS; RELATIVISTIC RANGE; SPECTRA; TRANSFORMATIONS
Descriptors DEC
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS; ENERGY RANGE; EQUATIONS; MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS; MECHANICS; PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS; QUANTUM OPERATORS

Optional Information

Copyright
Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.