Quantum mechanics in noninertial reference frames: Relativistic accelerations and fictitious forces
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112 (United States)
One-particle systems in relativistically accelerating reference frames can be associated with a class of unitary representations of the group of arbitrary coordinate transformations, an extension of the Wigner–Bargmann definition of particles as the physical realization of unitary irreducible representations of the Poincaré group. Representations of the group of arbitrary coordinate transformations become necessary to define unitary operators implementing relativistic acceleration transformations in quantum theory because, unlike in the Galilean case, the relativistic acceleration transformations do not themselves form a group. The momentum operators that follow from these representations show how the fictitious forces in noninertial reference frames are generated in quantum theory.
- OSTI ID:
- 22560324
- Journal Information:
- Annals of Physics, Vol. 369, Issue Complete; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2016 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-4916
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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