English

On a discrete version of the position-momentum commutation relation

Quantum Physics 2026-02-05 v5

Abstract

The usual position-momentum commutation relation plays a fundamental role in the mathematical description of continuous-variable quantum systems. In the case of a qudit described by a Hilbert space of a high enough dimension, there exists a discrete version of the position-momentum commutation relation satisfied with approximation of a large part of the pure quantum states. Our purpose is to explore in more details the set of these states. We show that it contains a family of discrete-variable Gaussian states depending on a continuous parameter and certain discrete coherent states. It also contains various discrete-variable versions of the Hermite-Gauss states, defined either as eigenstates of certain discrete versions of the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian or generated by using a discrete version of the creation or annihilation operator. The presented results suggest a possible way to experimentally obtain some of the investigated states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.22753,
  title  = {On a discrete version of the position-momentum commutation relation},
  author = {Nicolae Cotfas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.22753},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Some new results, figures and physical interpretations have been added

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:59:35.086Z