Quantum mechanics in fractional and other anomalous spacetimes
- Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Am Muehlenberg 1, D-14476 Golm (Germany)
- Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Universita Cattolica, via Musei 41, 25121 Brescia (Italy)
We formulate quantum mechanics in spacetimes with real-order fractional geometry and more general factorizable measures. In spacetimes where coordinates and momenta span the whole real line, Heisenberg's principle is proven and the wave-functions minimizing the uncertainty are found. In spite of the fact that ordinary time and spatial translations are broken and the dynamics is not unitary, the theory is in one-to-one correspondence with a unitary one, thus allowing us to employ standard tools of analysis. These features are illustrated in the examples of the free particle and the harmonic oscillator. While fractional (and the more general anomalous-spacetime) free models are formally indistinguishable from ordinary ones at the classical level, at the quantum level they differ both in the Hilbert space and for a topological term fixing the classical action in the path integral formulation. Thus, all non-unitarity in fractional quantum dynamics is encoded in a contribution depending only on the initial and final states.
- OSTI ID:
- 22093755
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 53, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0022-2488
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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