Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:16:33.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Characters and contact transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

K. C. Hannabuss
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford

Extract

If V is a symplectic space, each affine contact transformation is shown to define an automorphism of a certain algebra of Schwartz functions on V. This automorphism turns out to be a generalized inner automorphism and allows one to associate to the contact transformation a tempered distribution which can be found explicitly. It is shown by means of various examples that these distributions contain much information about the corresponding quantized system. For example the energy levels and stationary states of the harmonic oscillator can be deduced from the general formulae. Generalizations to other locally compact abelian groups V are described. Some connections with the theory of Fourier integral operators and with the characters of certain projective representations are also outlined.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

(1)Bruhat, F.Distributions sur un groupe localement compact et applications à l'étude des représentations des groupes p–adiques. Bull. Soc. Math. France 89 (1961), 4375.Google Scholar
(2)Edwards, C. M. & Lewis, J. T.Twisted group algebras I and II. Commun. Math. Phys. 13 (1969), 119141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(3)Hannabuss, K. C.Representations of nilpotent locally compact groups. J. Functional Anal. 34 (1979), 146165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(4)Hannabuss, K. C.Representations of certain solvable locally compact groups. (Preprint, Oxford 1979.)Google Scholar
(5)Hannabuss, K. C.Contact transformations and representation theory. (Preprint, Oxford, 1980.)Google Scholar
(6)Kleppner, A. A.Multipliers on abelian groups. Math. Ann. 158 (1965), 1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(7)Loupias, G. & Miracle-Sole, S.C*-algèbres des systèmes canoniques: I. Commun. Math. Phys. 2 (1966), 3148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(8)Lunn, M. Some problems in group theory and quantum mechanics. D.Phil, thesis, Oxford 1969.Google Scholar
(9)Mackey, G. W.Unitary representations of group extensions: I. Acta Math. 99 (1958), 265311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(10)Moyal, J. E.Quantum mechanics as a statistical theory. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 45 (1949), 99124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(11)Pedersen, G. K.C*-algebras and their automorphism groups, L.M.S. Monographs 14 (Academic Press, London, 1979).Google Scholar
(12)Pool, J. C. T.Mathematical aspects of the Weyl correspondence. J. Mathematical Phys. 7 (1966), 6676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(13)Weil, A.Sur certains groupes d'opérateurs unitaires. Acta Math. 111 (1964), 143211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(14)Weyl, H.The theory of groups and quantum mechanics, English translation (Dover, New York, undated).Google Scholar