A remarkable dynamical symmetry of the Landau problem
Abstract
We show that the dynamical group of an electron in a constant magnetic field is the group of symplectomorphisms . It is generated by the spinorial realization of the conformal algebra considered in Dirac's seminal paper "A Remarkable Representation of the 3 + 2 de Sitter Group". The symplectic group is the double covering of the conformal group 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 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}
}
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17 pages