English

Structure of nonlinear gauge transformations

Quantum Physics 2009-10-30 v2

Abstract

Nonlinear Doebner-Goldin [Phys. Rev. A 54, 3764 (1996)] gauge transformations (NGT) defined in terms of a wave function ψ(x)\psi(x) do not form a group. To get a group property one has to consider transformations that act differently on different branches of the complex argument function and the knowledge of the value of ψ(x)\psi(x) is not sufficient for a well defined NGT. NGT that are well defined in terms of ψ(x)\psi(x) form a semigroup parametrized by a real number γ\gamma and a nonzero λ\lambda which is either an integer or 1λ1-1\leq \lambda\leq 1. An extension of NGT to projectors and general density matrices leads to NGT with complex γ\gamma. Both linearity of evolution and Hermiticity of density matrices are gauge dependent properties.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9711053,
  title  = {Structure of nonlinear gauge transformations},
  author = {Marek Czachor},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9711053},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Final version, to be published in Phys.Rev.A (Rapid Communication), April 1998