English

Super-Lagrangian and variational principle for generalized continuity equations

Mathematical Physics 2019-05-22 v1 math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

We present a variational approach which shows that the wave functions belonging to quantum systems in different potential landscapes, are pairwise linked to each other through a generalized continuity equation. This equation contains a source term proportional to the potential difference. In case the potential landscapes are related by a linear symmetry transformation in a finite domain of the embedding space, the derived continuity equation leads to generalized currents which are divergence free within this spatial domain. In a single spatial dimension these generalized currents are invariant. In contrast to the standard continuity equation, originating from the abelian U(1)U(1)-phase symmetry of the standard Lagrangian, the generalized continuity equations derived here, are based on a non-abelian SU(2)SU(2)-transformation of a Super-Lagrangian. Our approach not only provides a rigorous theoretical framework to study quantum mechanical systems in potential landscapes possessing local symmetries, but it also reveals a general duality between quantum states corresponding to different Schr\"{o}dinger problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1811.02843,
  title  = {Super-Lagrangian and variational principle for generalized continuity equations},
  author = {Fotis K. Diakonos and Peter Schmelcher},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1811.02843},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

17 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-23T05:07:33.867Z