English

Coordinate representation for non Hermitian position and momentum operators

Mathematical Physics 2017-10-25 v1 math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

In this paper we undertake an analysis of the eigenstates of two non self-adjoint operators q^\hat q and p^\hat p similar, in a suitable sense, to the self-adjoint position and momentum operators q^0\hat q_0 and p^0\hat p_0 usually adopted in ordinary quantum mechanics. In particular we discuss conditions for these eigenstates to be {\em biorthogonal distributions}, and we discuss few of their properties. We illustrate our results with two examples, one in which the similarity map between the self-adjoint and the non self-adjoint is bounded, with bounded inverse, and the other in which this is not true. We also briefly propose an alternative strategy to deal with q^\hat q and p^\hat p, based on the so-called {\em quasi *-algebras}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.03578,
  title  = {Coordinate representation for non Hermitian position and momentum operators},
  author = {F. Bagarello and F. Gargano and S. Spagnolo and S. Triolo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.03578},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Accepted in Proceedings of the Royal Society A

R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:12:38.107Z