English

A remarkable dynamical symmetry of the Landau problem

Mathematical Physics 2025-06-16 v1 math.MP

Abstract

We show that the dynamical group of an electron in a constant magnetic field is the group of symplectomorphisms Sp(4,R)Sp(4,\mathbb{R}). It is generated by the spinorial realization of the conformal algebra so(2,3)\mathfrak{so}(2,3) considered in Dirac's seminal paper "A Remarkable Representation of the 3 + 2 de Sitter Group". The symplectic group Sp(4,R)Sp(4,\mathbb{R}) is the double covering of the conformal group SO(2,3)SO(2,3) of 2+1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime which is in turn the dynamical group of a hydrogen atom in 2 space dimensions. The Newton-Hooke duality between the 2D hydrogen atom and the Landau problem is explained via the Tits-Kantor-Koecher construction of the conformal symmetries of the Jordan algebra of real symmetric 2×22 \times 2 matrices. The connection between the Landau problem and the 3D hydrogen atom is elucidated by the reduction of a Dirac spinor to a Majorana one in the Kustaanheimo-Stiefel spinorial regularization.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.11642,
  title  = {A remarkable dynamical symmetry of the Landau problem},
  author = {Tekin Dereli and Philippe Nounahon and Todor Popov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11642},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

17 pages