Related papers: Self-adjointness in Quantum Mechanics: a pedagogic…
In most introductory courses on quantum mechanics one is taught that the Hamiltonian operator must be Hermitian in order that the energy levels be real and that the theory be unitary (probability conserving). To express the Hermiticity of a…
In Quantum Mechanics operators must be hermitian and, in a direct product space, symmetric. These properties are saved by Lie algebra operators but not by those of quantum algebras. A possible correspondence between observables and quantum…
This paper argues that non-self-adjoint operators can be observables. There are only four ways for this to occur: non-self-adjoint observables can either be normal operators, or be symmetric, or have a real spectrum, or have none of these…
We survey some of the main conceptual developments in the study of PT-symmetric and pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonian operators that have taken place during the past ten years or so. We offer a precise mathematical description of a quantum…
The quantum mechanical commutation relations, which are directly related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, have a crucial importance for understanding the quantum mechanics of students. During undergraduate level courses, the…
In the present paper I show how it is possible to derive the Hilbert space formulation of Quantum Mechanics from a comprehensive definition of "physical experiment" and assuming "experimental accessibility and simplicity" as specified by…
A representation theorem for non-semibounded Hermitian quadratic forms in terms of a (non-semibounded) self-adjoint operator is proven. The main assumptions are closability of the Hermitian quadratic form, the direct integral structure of…
Recently, much research has been carried out on Hamiltonians that are not Hermitian but are symmetric under space-time reflection, that is, Hamiltonians that exhibit PT symmetry. Investigations of the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem…
The Hermiticity condition in quantum mechanics required for the characterisation of (a) physical observables and (b) generators of unitary motions can be relaxed into a wider class of operators whose eigenvalues are real and whose…
Thought experiments about the physical nature of set theoretical counterexamples to the axiom of choice motivate the investigation of peculiar constructions, e.g. an infinite dimensional Hilbert space with a modular quantum logic. Applying…
It is known that the momentum operator canonically conjugated to the position operator for a particle moving in some bounded interval of the line {(with Dirichlet boundary conditions) is not essentially self-adjoint}: it has a continuous…
We describe a system of axioms that, on one hand, is sufficient for constructing the standard mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics and, on the other hand, is necessary from the phenomenological standpoint. In the proposed scheme, the…
For a class of singular potentials, including the Coulomb potential (in three and less dimensions) and $V(x) = g/x^2$ with the coefficient $g$ in a certain range ($x$ being a space coordinate in one or more dimensions), the corresponding…
In a pre-selected Hilbert space of quantum states the unitarity of the evolution is usually guaranteed via a pre-selection of the generator (i.e., of the Hamiltonian operator) in self-adjoint form. In fact, the simultaneous use of both of…
This paper synergizes the roles of adjoint in various disciplines of mathematics, sciences, and engineering. Though the materials developed and presented are not new -- as each or some could be found in (or inferred from) publications in…
The parity violation in nuclear reactions led to the discovery of the new class of toroidal multipoles. Since then, it was observed that toroidal multipoles are present in the electromagnetic structure of systems at all scales, from…
Two quantum events, represented by positive operators (effects), are coexistent if they can occur as possible outcomes in a single measurement scheme. Equivalently, the corresponding effects are coexistent if and only if they are contained…
Although the physical Hamiltonian operator can be constructed in the deparameterized model of loop quantum gravity coupled to a scalar field, its property is still unknown. This open issue is attacked in this paper by considering an…
A quasi-Hermitian operator is an operator that is similar to its adjoint in some sense, via a metric operator, i.e., a strictly positive self-adjoint operator. Whereas those metric operators are in general assumed to be bounded, we analyze…
The properties which give quantum mechanics its unique character - unitarity, complementarity, non-commutativity, uncertainty, nonlocality - derive from the algebraic structure of Hermitian operators acting on the wavefunction in complex…