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Phys. Rev. A 55, 4023–4029 (1997)

Relations of canonical and unitary transformations for a general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian system

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Kyu-Hwang Yeon and Duk-Hyeon Kim
Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheong Ju, Chungbuk 306-763, Korea

Chung-In Um
Department of Physics, College of Science, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea

Thomas F. George
Office of the Chancellor/Departments of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point,

Lakshmi N. Pandey
Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-4630

Received 13 November 1996; published in the issue dated June 1997

We consider general time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian systems which are connected by canonical transformations and give the same classical equations of motion. In those systems, we demonstrate that canonical transformations in classical mechanics correspond to unitary transformations in quantum mechanics. The wave functions and the propagators are evaluated using the invariant operator method. However, the values of some functions of the canonical variables q and p are not equal to the values of the same functions of the other canonical variables Q and P, but the values of the functions of q and the kinetic momentum pk are equal to those of the other Q and Pk in classical mechanics. We prove that these also hold in the quantum treatment. The uncertainty relations of momentum and position are evaluated for the two Hamiltonians.

© 1997 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.55.4023
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.55.4023
PACS:
03.65.Ge