Noncommutative spaces as quantized constrained Hamiltonian systems
Abstract
We investigate the strong-field limit of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field as a toy model for general covariant systems, establishing a novel connection between constrained Hamiltonian dynamics and noncommutative geometry. Starting from the action , which represents the holonomy of the particle's path with respect to the electromagnetic potential , we analyze the resulting general covariant system with vanishing Hamiltonian. The equations of motion confine the particle to leaves of a singular foliation defined by the field strength tensor . We show that the physical state space corresponds to the space of leaves of this foliation, with points connected by field lines being gauge equivalent. The Hamiltonian analysis reveals constraints that are locally classified as first-class or second-class depending on the rank of the field strength tensor. Upon quantization, this leads to noncommuting coordinate operators, establishing the physical state space as a noncommutative geometry. We provide explicit examples and show in particular that the magnetic monopole field strength yields a fuzzy sphere.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.04229,
title = {Noncommutative spaces as quantized constrained Hamiltonian systems},
author = {Andreas Sykora},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.04229},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
17 pages, 1 figure