From the Equations of Motion to the Canonical Commutation Relations

The problem of whether or not the equations of motion of a quantum system determine the commutation relations was posed by E.P.Wigner in 1950. A similar problem (known as "The Inverse Problem in the Calculus of Variations") was posed in a classical setting as back as in 1887 by H.Helmoltz and has received great attention also in recent times. The aim of this paper is to discuss how these two apparently unrelated problems can actually be discussed in a somewhat unified framework. After reviewing briefly the Inverse Problem and the existence of alternative structures for classical systems, we discuss the geometric structures that are intrinsically present in Quantum Mechanics, starting from finite-level systems and then moving to a more general setting by using the Weyl-Wigner approach, showing how this approach can accomodate in an almost natural way the existence of alternative structures in Quantum Mechanics as well.Comment: 199 pages; to be published in "La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento" (www.sif.it/SIF/en/portal/journals

A look to the inside of haloes: a characterisation of the halo shape as a function of overdensity in the Planck cosmology

In this paper we study the triaxial properties of dark matter haloes of a wide range of masses extracted from a set of cosmological N-body simulations. We measure the shape at different distances from the halo centre (characterised by different overdensity thresholds), both in three and in two dimensions. We discuss how halo triaxiality increases with mass, redshift and distance from the halo centre. We also examine how the orientation of the different ellipsoids are aligned with each other and what is the gradient in internal shapes for halos with different virial configurations. Our findings highlight that the internal part of the halo retains memory of the violent formation process keeping the major axis oriented toward the preferential direction of the in-falling material while the outer part becomes rounder due to continuous isotropic merging events. This effect is clearly evident in high mass haloes - which formed more recently - while it is more blurred in low mass haloes. We present simple distributions that may be used as priors for various mass reconstruction algorithms, operating in different wavelengths, in order to recover a more complex and realistic dark matter distribution of isolated and relaxed systems.Comment: accepted for publication by MNRAS (15 pag. and 14 fig.

Covariant Jacobi Brackets for Test Particles

We show that the space of observables of test particles carries a natural Jacobi structure which is manifestly invariant under the action of the Poincar\'{e} group. Poisson algebras may be obtained by imposing further requirements. A generalization of Peierls procedure is used to extend this Jacobi bracket on the space of time-like geodesics on Minkowski space-time.Comment: 13 pages Submitted to MPL

Reduction and unfolding: the Kepler problem

In this paper we show, in a systematic way, how to relate the Kepler problem to the isotropic harmonic oscillator. Unlike previous approaches, our constructions are carried over in the Lagrangian formalism dealing with second order vector fields. We therefore provide a tangent bundle version of the Kustaahneimo-Stiefel map.Comment: latex2e, 28 pages; misprints correcte

Symmetries, group actions, and entanglement

We address several problems concerning the geometry of the space of Hermitian operators on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, in particular the geometry of the space of density states and canonical group actions on it. For quantum composite systems we discuss and give examples of measures of entanglement.Comment: 21 page

Hamilton-Jacobi approach to Potential Functions in Information Geometry

The search for a potential function $S$ allowing to reconstruct a given metric tensor $g$ and a given symmetric covariant tensor $T$ on a manifold $\mathcal{M}$ is formulated as the Hamilton-Jacobi problem associated with a canonically defined Lagrangian on $T\mathcal{M}$. The connection between this problem, the geometric structure of the space of pure states of quantum mechanics, and the theory of contrast functions of classical information geometry is outlined.Comment: 16 pages. A discussion on the Kullback-Leibler divergence has been added. To appear in Journal of Mathematical Physic

Topological aspects of generalized Harper operators

A generalized version of the TKNN-equations computing Hall conductances for generalized Dirac-like Harper operators is derived. Geometrically these equations relate Chern numbers of suitable (dual) bundles naturally associated to spectral projections of the operators.Comment: 8 pages; needs aipproc.cls and corresponding style files. To appear in: "The Eight International Conference on Progress in Theoretical Physics", Mentouri University, Constantine, Algeria, October 2011; Conference proceedings of the AIP, edited by N. Mebarki and J. Mimoun