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On obtaining classical mechanics from quantum mechanics

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Abstract

Constructing a classical mechanical system associated with a given quantum mechanical one, entails construction of a classical phase space and a corresponding Hamiltonian function from the available quantum structures and a notion of coarser observations. The Hilbert space of any quantum mechanical system naturally has the structure of an infinite dimensional symplectic manifold (`quantum phase space'). There is also a systematic, quotienting procedure which imparts a bundle structure to the quantum phase space and extracts a classical phase space as the base space. This works straight forwardly when the Hilbert space carries weakly continuous representation of the Heisenberg group and recovers the linear classical phase space $\\mathbb{R}^{\\mathrm{2N}}$. We report on how the procedure also allows extraction of non-linear classical phase spaces and illustrate it for Hilbert spaces being finite dimensional (spin-j systems), infinite dimensional but separable (particle on a circle) and infinite dimensional but non-separable (Bohr quantization). To construct a corresponding classical dynamics, one needs to choose a suitable section and identify an effective Hamiltonian. The effective dynamics mirrors the quantum dynamics provided the section satisfies conditions of semiclassicality and tangentiality. There is also an alternative and a priori distinct notion of effective Hamiltonian used in the context of a WKB approximation. These two notions are compared for the example of loop quantum cosmology.

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Constructing a classical mechanical system associated with a given quantum mechanical one, entails construction of a classical phase space and a corresponding Hamiltonian function from the available quantum structures and a notion of coarser observations. The Hilbert space of any quantum mechanical system naturally has the structure of an infinite dimensional symplectic manifold (`quantum phase space'). There is also a systematic, quotienting procedure which imparts a bundle structure to the quantum phase space and extracts a classical phase space as the base space. This works straight forwardly when the Hilbert space carries weakly continuous representation of the Heisenberg group and recovers the linear classical phase space $\\mathbb{R}^{\\mathrm{2N}}$. We report on how the procedure also allows extraction of non-linear classical phase spaces and illustrate it for Hilbert spaces being finite dimensional (spin-j systems), infinite dimensional but separable (particle on a circle) and infinite dimensional but non-separable (Bohr quantization). To construct a corresponding classical dynamics, one needs to choose a suitable section and identify an effective Hamiltonian. The effective dynamics mirrors the quantum dynamics provided the section satisfies conditions of semiclassicality and tangentiality. There is also an alternative and a priori distinct notion of effective Hamiltonian used in the context of a WKB approximation. These two notions are compared for the example of loop quantum cosmology.

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Available abstract

Constructing a classical mechanical system associated with a given quantum mechanical one, entails construction of a classical phase space and a corresponding Hamiltonian function from the available quantum structures and a notion of coarser observations. The Hilbert space of any quantum mechanical system naturally has the structure of an infinite dimensional symplectic manifold (`quantum phase space'). There is also a systematic, quotienting procedure which imparts a bundle structure to the quantum phase space and extracts a classical phase space as the base space. This works straight forwardly when the Hilbert space carries weakly continuous representation of the Heisenberg group and recovers the linear classical phase space $\\mathbb{R}^{\\mathrm{2N}}$. We report on how the procedure also allows extraction of non-linear classical phase spaces and illustrate it for Hilbert spaces being finite dimensional (spin-j systems), infinite dimensional but separable (particle on a circle) and infinite dimensional but non-separable (Bohr quantization). To construct a corresponding classical dynamics, one needs to choose a suitable section and identify an effective Hamiltonian. The effective dynamics mirrors the quantum dynamics provided the section satisfies conditions of semiclassicality and tangentiality. There is also an alternative and a priori distinct notion of effective Hamiltonian used in the context of a WKB approximation. These two notions are compared for the example of loop quantum cosmology.

Key concepts: Method of quantum characteristics, Physics, Mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, Phase space, Projective Hilbert space, Hilbert space, Geometric quantization, Hamiltonian mechanics

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