Moebius Structure of the Spectral Space of Schroedinger Operators with Point Interaction

The Schroedinger operator with point interaction in one dimension has a U(2) family of self-adjoint extensions. We study the spectrum of the operator and show that (i) the spectrum is uniquely determined by the eigenvalues of the matrix U belonging to U(2) that characterizes the extension, and that (ii) the space of distinct spectra is given by the orbifold T^2/Z_2 which is a Moebius strip with boundary. We employ a parametrization of U(2) that admits a direct physical interpretation and furnishes a coherent framework to realize the spectral duality and anholonomy recently found. This allows us to find that (iii) physically distinct point interactions form a three-parameter quotient space of the U(2) family.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Classical Aspects of Quantum Walls in One Dimension

We investigate the system of a particle moving on a half line x >= 0 under the general walls at x = 0 that are permitted quantum mechanically. These quantum walls, characterized by a parameter L, are shown to be realized as a limit of regularized potentials. We then study the classical aspects of the quantum walls, by seeking a classical counterpart which admits the same time delay in scattering with the quantum wall, and also by examining the WKB-exactness of the transition kernel based on the regularized potentials. It is shown that no classical counterpart exists for walls with L < 0, and that the WKB-exactness can hold only for L = 0 and L = infinity.Comment: TeX, 21 pages, 4 figures. v2: some parts of the text improved, new and improved figure

Quantum contact interactions

The existence of several exotic phenomena, such as duality and spectral anholonomy is pointed out in one-dimensional quantum wire with a single defect. The topological structure in the spectral space which is behind these phenomena is identified.Comment: A lecture presented at the 2nd Winter Institute on Foundations of Quantum Theory and Quantum Optics (WINST02), Jan. 2-11, 2002, S.N.Bose Institute, Calcutta, India: 8 pages latex with Indian Acad. Sci. style fil

Boundary effect of a partition in a quantum well

The paper wishes to demonstrate that, in quantum systems with boundaries, different boundary conditions can lead to remarkably different physical behaviour. Our seemingly innocent setting is a one dimensional potential well that is divided into two halves by a thin separating wall. The two half wells are populated by the same type and number of particles and are kept at the same temperature. The only difference is in the boundary condition imposed at the two sides of the separating wall, which is the Dirichlet condition from the left and the Neumann condition from the right. The resulting different energy spectra cause a difference in the quantum statistically emerging pressure on the two sides. The net force acting on the separating wall proves to be nonzero at any temperature and, after a weak decrease in the low temperature domain, to increase and diverge with a square-root-of-temperature asymptotics for high temperatures. These observations hold for both bosonic and fermionic type particles, but with quantitative differences. We work out several analytic approximations to explain these differences and the various aspects of the found unexpectedly complex picture.Comment: LaTeX (with iopart.cls, iopart10.clo and iopart12.clo), 28 pages, 17 figure

Quantum Force Induced on a Partition Wall in a Harmonic Potential

Boundary effects in quantum mechanics are examined by considering a partition wall inserted at the centre of a harmonic oscillator system. We put an equal number of particles on both sides of the impenetrable wall keeping the system under finite temperatures. When the wall admits distinct boundary conditions on the two sides, then a net force is induced on the wall. We study the temperature behaviour of the induced force both analytically and numerically under the combination of the Dirichlet and the Neumann conditions, and determine its scaling property for two statistical cases of the particles: fermions and bosons. We find that the force has a nonvanishing limit at zero temperature T = 0 and exhibits scalings characteristic to the statistics of the particles. We also see that for higher temperatures the force decreases according to 1/sqrt{T}, in sharp contrast to the case of the infinite potential well where it diverges according to sqrt{T}. The results suggest that, if such a nontrivial partition wall can be realized, it may be used as a probe to examine the profile of the potentials and the statistics of the particles involved.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, typos corrected, references adde

Inequivalent quantizations of the three-particle Calogero model constructed by separation of variables

We quantize the 1-dimensional 3-body problem with harmonic and inverse square pair potential by separating the Schr\"odinger equation following the classic work of Calogero, but allowing all possible self-adjoint boundary conditions for the angular and radial Hamiltonians. The inverse square coupling constant is taken to be $g=2\nu (\nu-1)$ with ${1/2} <\nu< {3/2}$ and then the angular Hamiltonian is shown to admit a 2-parameter family of inequivalent quantizations compatible with the dihedral $D_6$ symmetry of its potential term $9 \nu (\nu -1)/\sin^2 3\phi$. These are parametrized by a matrix $U\in U(2)$ satisfying $\sigma_1 U \sigma_1 = U$, and in all cases we describe the qualitative features of the angular eigenvalues and classify the eigenstates under the $D_6$ symmetry and its $S_3$ subgroup generated by the particle exchanges. The angular eigenvalue $\lambda$ enters the radial Hamiltonian through the potential $(\lambda -{1/4})/r^2$ allowing a 1-parameter family of self-adjoint boundary conditions at $r=0$ if $\lambda <1$. For $0<\lambda<1$ our analysis of the radial Schr\"odinger equation is consistent with previous results on the possible energy spectra, while for $\lambda <0$ it shows that the energy is not bounded from below rejecting those $U$'s admitting such eigenvalues as physically impermissible. The permissible self-adjoint angular Hamiltonians include, for example, the cases $U=\pm {\bf 1}_2, \pm \sigma_1$, which are explicitly solvable and are presented in detail. The choice $U=-{\bf 1}_2$ reproduces Calogero's quantization, while for the choice $U=\sigma_1$ the system is smoothly connected to the harmonic oscillator in the limit $\nu \to 1$.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, v2: a reference and a note added, v3: merely a constant is correcte

Spectral properties on a circle with a singularity

We investigate the spectral and symmetry properties of a quantum particle moving on a circle with a pointlike singularity (or point interaction). We find that, within the U(2) family of the quantum mechanically allowed distinct singularities, a U(1) equivalence (of duality-type) exists, and accordingly the space of distinct spectra is U(1) x [SU(2)/U(1)], topologically a filled torus. We explore the relationship of special subfamilies of the U(2) family to corresponding symmetries, and identify the singularities that admit an N = 2 supersymmetry. Subfamilies that are distinguished in the spectral properties or the WKB exactness are also pointed out. The spectral and symmetry properties are also studied in the context of the circle with two singularities, which provides a useful scheme to discuss the symmetry properties on a general basis.Comment: TeX, 26 pages. v2: one reference added and two update

Two fermion relativistic bound states: hyperfine shifts

We discuss the hyperfine shifts of the Positronium levels in a relativistic framework, starting from a two fermion wave equation where, in addition to the Coulomb potential, the magnetic interaction between spins is described by a Breit term. We write the system of four first order differential equations describing this model. We discuss its mathematical features, mainly in relation to possible singularities that may appear at finite values of the radial coordinate. We solve the boundary value problems both in the singular and non singular cases and we develop a perturbation scheme, well suited for numerical computations, that allows to calculate the hyperfine shifts for any level, according to well established physical arguments that the Breit term must be treated at the first perturbative order. We discuss our results, comparing them with the corresponding values obtained from semi-classical expansions.Comment: 16 page

An approximation to δ′\delta' couplings on graphs

We discuss a general parametrization for vertices of quantum graphs and show, in particular, how the $\delta'_s$ and $\delta'$ coupling at an $n$ edge vertex can be approximated by means of $n+1$ couplings of the $\delta$ type provided the latter are properly scaled.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure added, to be published in J. of Phys.

Vacuum Energy and Renormalization on the Edge

The vacuum dependence on boundary conditions in quantum field theories is analysed from a very general viewpoint. From this perspective the renormalization prescriptions not only imply the renormalization of the couplings of the theory in the bulk but also the appearance of a flow in the space of boundary conditions. For regular boundaries this flow has a large variety of fixed points and no cyclic orbit. The family of fixed points includes Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions. In one-dimensional field theories pseudoperiodic and quasiperiodic boundary conditions are also RG fixed points. Under these conditions massless bosonic free field theories are conformally invariant. Among all fixed points only Neumann boundary conditions are infrared stable fixed points. All other conformal invariant boundary conditions become unstable under some relevant perturbations. In finite volumes we analyse the dependence of the vacuum energy along the trajectories of the renormalization group flow providing an interesting framework for dark energy evolution. On the contrary, the renormalization group flow on the boundary does not affect the leading behaviour of the entanglement entropy of the vacuum in one-dimensional conformally invariant bosonic theories.Comment: 10 pages, 1 eps figur