Rotating frames and gauge invariance in three-dimensional many-body quantum systems

We study the quantization of many-body systems in three dimensions in rotating coordinate frames using a gauge invariant formulation of the dynamics. We consider reference frames defined by linear gauge conditions, and discuss their Gribov ambiguities and commutator algebra. We construct the momentum operators, inner product and Hamiltonian in those gauges, for systems with and without translation invariance. The analogy with the quantization of non-Abelian Yang-Mills theories in non-covariant gauges is emphasized. Our results are applied to quasi-rigid systems in the Eckart frame