Carnot-Caratheodory metric and gauge fluctuation in Noncommutative Geometry

Gauge fields have a natural metric interpretation in terms of horizontal distance. The latest, also called Carnot-Caratheodory or subriemannian distance, is by definition the length of the shortest horizontal path between points, that is to say the shortest path whose tangent vector is everywhere horizontal with respect to the gauge connection. In noncommutative geometry all the metric information is encoded within the Dirac operator D. In the classical case, i.e. commutative, Connes's distance formula allows to extract from D the geodesic distance on a riemannian spin manifold. In the case of a gauge theory with a gauge field A, the geometry of the associated U(n)-vector bundle is described by the covariant Dirac operator D+A. What is the distance encoded within this operator ? It was expected that the noncommutative geometry distance d defined by a covariant Dirac operator was intimately linked to the Carnot-Caratheodory distance dh defined by A. In this paper we precise this link, showing that the equality of d and dh strongly depends on the holonomy of the connection. Quite interestingly we exhibit an elementary example, based on a 2 torus, in which the noncommutative distance has a very simple expression and simultaneously avoids the main drawbacks of the riemannian metric (no discontinuity of the derivative of the distance function at the cut-locus) and of the subriemannian one (memory of the structure of the fiber).Comment: published version with additional figures to make the proof more readable. Typos corrected in this ultimate versio

Casimir energy in a small volume multiply connected static hyperbolic pre-inflationary Universe

A few years ago, Cornish, Spergel and Starkman (CSS), suggested that a multiply connected ``small'' Universe could allow for classical chaotic mixing as a pre-inflationary homogenization process. The smaller the volume, the more important the process. Also, a smaller Universe has a greater probability of being spontaneously created. Previously DeWitt, Hart and Isham (DHI) calculated the Casimir energy for static multiply connected flat space-times. Due to the interest in small volume hyperbolic Universes (e.g. CSS), we generalize the DHI calculation by making a a numerical investigation of the Casimir energy for a conformally coupled, massive scalar field in a static Universe, whose spatial sections are the Weeks manifold, the smallest Universe of negative curvature known. In spite of being a numerical calculation, our result is in fact exact. It is shown that there is spontaneous vacuum excitation of low multipolar components.Comment: accepted for publication in phys. rev.

Universal integrals for superintegrable systems on N-dimensional spaces of constant curvature

An infinite family of classical superintegrable Hamiltonians defined on the N-dimensional spherical, Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces are shown to have a common set of (2N-3) functionally independent constants of the motion. Among them, two different subsets of N integrals in involution (including the Hamiltonian) can always be explicitly identified. As particular cases, we recover in a straightforward way most of the superintegrability properties of the Smorodinsky-Winternitz and generalized Kepler-Coulomb systems on spaces of constant curvature and we introduce as well new classes of (quasi-maximally) superintegrable potentials on these spaces. Results here presented are a consequence of the sl(2) Poisson coalgebra symmetry of all the Hamiltonians, together with an appropriate use of the phase spaces associated to Poincare and Beltrami coordinates.Comment: 12 page

Energy distribution of maxima and minima in a one-dimensional random system

We study the energy distribution of maxima and minima of a simple one-dimensional disordered Hamiltonian. We find that in systems with short range correlated disorder there is energy separation between maxima and minima, such that at fixed energy only one kind of stationary points is dominant in number over the other. On the other hand, in the case of systems with long range correlated disorder maxima and minima are completely mixed.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 1 eps figure. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Conformal compactification and cycle-preserving symmetries of spacetimes

The cycle-preserving symmetries for the nine two-dimensional real spaces of constant curvature are collectively obtained within a Cayley-Klein framework. This approach affords a unified and global study of the conformal structure of the three classical Riemannian spaces as well as of the six relativistic and non-relativistic spacetimes (Minkowskian, de Sitter, anti-de Sitter, both Newton-Hooke and Galilean), and gives rise to general expressions holding simultaneously for all of them. Their metric structure and cycles (lines with constant geodesic curvature that include geodesics and circles) are explicitly characterized. The corresponding cyclic (Mobius-like) Lie groups together with the differential realizations of their algebras are then deduced; this derivation is new and much simpler than the usual ones and applies to any homogeneous space in the Cayley-Klein family, whether flat or curved and with any signature. Laplace and wave-type differential equations with conformal algebra symmetry are constructed. Furthermore, the conformal groups are realized as matrix groups acting as globally defined linear transformations in a four-dimensional "conformal ambient space", which in turn leads to an explicit description of the "conformal completion" or compactification of the nine spaces.Comment: 43 pages, LaTe

Integrable potentials on spaces with curvature from quantum groups

A family of classical integrable systems defined on a deformation of the two-dimensional sphere, hyperbolic and (anti-)de Sitter spaces is constructed through Hamiltonians defined on the non-standard quantum deformation of a sl(2) Poisson coalgebra. All these spaces have a non-constant curvature that depends on the deformation parameter z. As particular cases, the analogues of the harmonic oscillator and Kepler--Coulomb potentials on such spaces are proposed. Another deformed Hamiltonian is also shown to provide superintegrable systems on the usual sphere, hyperbolic and (anti-)de Sitter spaces with a constant curvature that exactly coincides with z. According to each specific space, the resulting potential is interpreted as the superposition of a central harmonic oscillator with either two more oscillators or centrifugal barriers. The non-deformed limit z=0 of all these Hamiltonians can then be regarded as the zero-curvature limit (contraction) which leads to the corresponding (super)integrable systems on the flat Euclidean and Minkowskian spaces.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure. Two references adde

Dirac equation from the Hamiltonian and the case with a gravitational field

Starting from an interpretation of the classical-quantum correspondence, we derive the Dirac equation by factorizing the algebraic relation satisfied by the classical Hamiltonian, before applying the correspondence. This derivation applies in the same form to a free particle, to one in an electromagnetic field, and to one subjected to geodesic motion in a static metric, and leads to the same, usual form of the Dirac equation--in special coordinates. To use the equation in the static-gravitational case, we need to rewrite it in more general coordinates. This can be done only if the usual, spinor transformation of the wave function is replaced by the 4-vector transformation. We show that the latter also makes the flat-space-time Dirac equation Lorentz-covariant, although the Dirac matrices are not invariant. Because the equation itself is left unchanged in the flat case, the 4-vector transformation does not alter the main physical consequences of that equation in that case. However, the equation derived in the static-gravitational case is not equivalent to the standard (Fock-Weyl) gravitational extension of the Dirac equation.Comment: 27 pages, standard LaTeX. v2: minor style changes, accepted for publication in Found. Phys. Letter

Maximal superintegrability of the generalized Kepler--Coulomb system on N-dimensional curved spaces

The superposition of the Kepler-Coulomb potential on the 3D Euclidean space with three centrifugal terms has recently been shown to be maximally superintegrable [Verrier P E and Evans N W 2008 J. Math. Phys. 49 022902] by finding an additional (hidden) integral of motion which is quartic in the momenta. In this paper we present the generalization of this result to the ND spherical, hyperbolic and Euclidean spaces by making use of a unified symmetry approach that makes use of the curvature parameter. The resulting Hamiltonian, formed by the (curved) Kepler-Coulomb potential together with N centrifugal terms, is shown to be endowed with (2N-1) functionally independent integrals of the motion: one of them is quartic and the remaining ones are quadratic. The transition from the proper Kepler-Coulomb potential, with its associated quadratic Laplace-Runge-Lenz N-vector, to the generalized system is fully described. The role of spherical, nonlinear (cubic), and coalgebra symmetries in all these systems is highlighted.Comment: 14 pages; PACS: 02.30.Ik 02.40.K

(Super)integrability from coalgebra symmetry: formalism and applications

The coalgebra approach to the construction of classical integrable systems from Poisson coalgebras is reviewed, and the essential role played by symplectic realizations in this framework is emphasized. Many examples of Hamiltonians with either undeformed or q-deformed coalgebra symmetry are given, and their Liouville superintegrability is discussed. Among them, (quasi-maximally) superintegrable systems on N-dimensional curved spaces of nonconstant curvature are analysed in detail. Further generalizations of the coalgebra approach that make use of comodule and loop algebras are presented. The generalization of such a coalgebra symmetry framework to quantum mechanical systems is straightforward.Comment: 33 pages. Review-contribution to the "Workshop on higher symmetries in Physics", 6-8 November 2008, Madrid, Spai

Superintegrable potentials on 3D Riemannian and Lorentzian spaces with non-constant curvature

A quantum sl(2,R) coalgebra is shown to underly the construction of a large class of superintegrable potentials on 3D curved spaces, that include the non-constant curvature analogues of the spherical, hyperbolic and (anti-)de Sitter spaces. The connection and curvature tensors for these "deformed" spaces are fully studied by working on two different phase spaces. The former directly comes from a 3D symplectic realization of the deformed coalgebra, while the latter is obtained through a map leading to a spherical-type phase space. In this framework, the non-deformed limit is identified with the flat contraction leading to the Euclidean and Minkowskian spaces/potentials. The resulting Hamiltonians always admit, at least, three functionally independent constants of motion coming from the coalgebra structure. Furthermore, the intrinsic oscillator and Kepler potentials on such Riemannian and Lorentzian spaces of non-constant curvature are identified, and several examples of them are explicitly presented.Comment: 14 pages. Based in the contribution presented at the Group 27 conference, Yerevan, Armenia, August 13-19, 200