About maximally localized states in quantum mechanics

We analyze the emergence of a minimal length for a large class of generalized commutation relations, preserving commutation of the position operators and translation invariance as well as rotation invariance (in dimension higher than one). We show that the construction of the maximally localized states based on squeezed states generally fails. Rather, one must resort to a constrained variational principle.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

On Nonlocality, Lattices and Internal Symmetries

We study functional analytic aspects of two types of correction terms to the Heisenberg algebra. One type is known to induce a finite lower bound $\Delta x_0$ to the resolution of distances, a short distance cutoff which is motivated from string theory and quantum gravity. It implies the existence of families of self-adjoint extensions of the position operators with lattices of eigenvalues. These lattices, which form representations of certain unitary groups cannot be resolved on the given geometry. This leads us to conjecture that, within this framework, degrees of freedom that correspond to structure smaller than the resolvable (Planck) scale turn into internal degrees of freedom with these unitary groups as symmetries. The second type of correction terms is related to the previous essentially by "Wick rotation", and its basics are here considered for the first time. In particular, we investigate unitarily inequivalent representations.Comment: 6 pages, LaTe

Corrections to the black body radiation due to minimum-length deformed quantum mechanics

Planck spectrum of black body radiation is usually derived by considering of quantized free electromagnetic field at a finite temperature. The minimum-length deformed quantization affects field theory both at the first and second quantization levels. Performing an exact calculation to the first order in deformation parameter, both of the corrections turn out to be of the same order. Nevertheless, the correction at the second quantization level has some qualitative difference, that may be interesting for future study to differentiate between these two sorts of corrections. In itself the correction to the black body radiation seems to be innocuous in light of the big-bang nucleosynthesis whenever the minimum length is less or equal to $10^{-19}$cm.Comment: 8 pages, Paper has been substantially revised - version to appear in Phys. Lett.

A Covariant Information-Density Cutoff in Curved Space-Time

In information theory, the link between continuous information and discrete information is established through well-known sampling theorems. Sampling theory explains, for example, how frequency-filtered music signals are reconstructible perfectly from discrete samples. In this Letter, sampling theory is generalized to pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. This provides a new set of mathematical tools for the study of space-time at the Planck scale: theories formulated on a differentiable space-time manifold can be completely equivalent to lattice theories. There is a close connection to generalized uncertainty relations which have appeared in string theory and other studies of quantum gravity.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe