Recent Results Regarding Affine Quantum Gravity

Recent progress in the quantization of nonrenormalizable scalar fields has found that a suitable non-classical modification of the ground state wave function leads to a result that eliminates term-by-term divergences that arise in a conventional perturbation analysis. After a brief review of both the scalar field story and the affine quantum gravity program, examination of the procedures used in the latter surprisingly shows an analogous formulation which already implies that affine quantum gravity is not plagued by divergences that arise in a standard perturbation study. Additionally, guided by the projection operator method to deal with quantum constraints, trial reproducing kernels are introduced that satisfy the diffeomorphism constraints. Furthermore, it is argued that the trial reproducing kernels for the diffeomorphism constraints may also satisfy the Hamiltonian constraint as well.Comment: 32 pages, new features in this alternative approach to quantize gravity, minor typos plus an improved argument in Sec. 9 suggested by Karel Kucha

Reduction of Lie-Jordan Banach algebras and quantum states

A theory of reduction of Lie-Jordan Banach algebras with respect to either a Jordan ideal or a Lie-Jordan subalgebra is presented. This theory is compared with the standard reduction of C*-algebras of observables of a quantum system in the presence of quantum constraints. It is shown that the later corresponds to the particular instance of the reduction of Lie-Jordan Banach algebras with respect to a Lie-Jordan subalgebra as described in this paper. The space of states of the reduced Lie-Jordan Banach algebras is described in terms of equivalence classes of extensions to the full algebra and their GNS representations are characterized in the same way. A few simple examples are discussed that illustrates some of the main results

Quantum control without access to the controlling interaction

In our model a fixed Hamiltonian acts on the joint Hilbert space of a quantum system and its controller. We show under which conditions measurements, state preparations, and unitary implementations on the system can be performed by quantum operations on the controller only. It turns out that a measurement of the observable A and an implementation of the one-parameter group exp(iAr) can be performed by almost the same sequence of control operations. Furthermore measurement procedures for A+B, for (AB+BA), and for i[A,B] can be constructed from measurements of A and B. This shows that the algebraic structure of the set of observables can be explained by the Lie group structure of the unitary evolutions on the joint Hilbert space of the measuring device and the measured system. A spin chain model with nearest neighborhood coupling shows that the border line between controller and system can be shifted consistently.Comment: 10 pages, Revte

Reduction Procedures in Classical and Quantum Mechanics

We present, in a pedagogical style, many instances of reduction procedures appearing in a variety of physical situations, both classical and quantum. We concentrate on the essential aspects of any reduction procedure, both in the algebraic and geometrical setting, elucidating the analogies and the differences between the classical and the quantum situations.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 35 pages. Expanded version of the Invited review talk delivered by G. Marmo at XXIst International Workshop On Differential Geometric Methods In Theoretical Mechanics, Madrid (Spain), 2006. To appear in Int. J. Geom. Methods in Modern Physic

Representable states on quasi-local quasi *-algebras

Continuing a previous analysis originally motivated by physics, we consider representable states on quasi-local quasi *-algebras, starting with examining the possibility for a {\em compatible} family of {\em local} states to give rise to a {\em global} state. Some properties of {\em local modifications} of representable states and some aspects of their asymptotic behavior are also considered.Comment: In press in Jpurnal of Mathematical Physic

The Possibility of Reconciling Quantum Mechanics with Classical Probability Theory

We describe a scheme for constructing quantum mechanics in which a quantum system is considered as a collection of open classical subsystems. This allows using the formal classical logic and classical probability theory in quantum mechanics. Our approach nevertheless allows completely reproducing the standard mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics and identifying its applicability limits. We especially attend to the quantum state reduction problem.Comment: Latex, 14 pages, 1 figur

The Geometric Phase and Ray Space Isometries

We study the behaviour of the geometric phase under isometries of the ray space. This leads to a better understanding of a theorem first proved by Wigner: isometries of the ray space can always be realised as projections of unitary or anti-unitary transformations on the Hilbert space. We suggest that the construction involved in Wigner's proof is best viewed as an use of the Pancharatnam connection to ``lift'' a ray space isometry to the Hilbert space.Comment: 17 pages, Latex file, no figures, To appear in Pramana J. Phy

Semiclassical properties and chaos degree for the quantum baker's map

We study the chaotic behaviour and the quantum-classical correspondence for the baker's map. Correspondence between quantum and classical expectation values is investigated and it is numerically shown that it is lost at the logarithmic timescale. The quantum chaos degree is computed and it is demonstrated that it describes the chaotic features of the model. The correspondence between classical and quantum chaos degrees is considered.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in J. Math. Phy

Towards a definition of quantum integrability

We briefly review the most relevant aspects of complete integrability for classical systems and identify those aspects which should be present in a definition of quantum integrability. We show that a naive extension of classical concepts to the quantum framework would not work because all infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces are unitarily isomorphic and, as a consequence, it would not be easy to define degrees of freedom. We argue that a geometrical formulation of quantum mechanics might provide a way out.Comment: 37 pages, AmsLatex, 1 figur

On non-completely positive quantum dynamical maps on spin chains

The new arguments based on Majorana fermions indicating that non-completely positive maps can describe open quantum evolution are presented.Comment: published; small change