We study a pair of canonoid (fouled) Hamiltonians of the harmonic oscillator
which provide, at the classical level, the same equation of motion as the
conventional Hamiltonian. These Hamiltonians, say K1 and K2, result
to be explicitly time-dependent and can be expressed as a formal rotation of
two cubic polynomial functions, H1 and H2, of the canonical variables
(q,p).
We investigate the role of these fouled Hamiltonians at the quantum level.
Adopting a canonical quantization procedure, we construct some quantum models
and analyze the related eigenvalue equations. One of these models is described
by a Hamiltonian admitting infinite self-adjoint extensions, each of them has a
discrete spectrum on the real line. A self-adjoint extension is fixed by
choosing the spectral parameter ϵ of the associated eigenvalue
equation equal to zero. The spectral problem is discussed in the context of
three different representations. For ϵ=0, the eigenvalue equation is
exactly solved in all these representations, in which square-integrable
solutions are explicity found. A set of constants of motion corresponding to
these quantum models is also obtained. Furthermore, the algebraic structure
underlying the quantum models is explored. This turns out to be a nonlinear
(quadratic) algebra, which could be applied for the determination of
approximate solutions to the eigenvalue equations.Comment: 24 pages, no figures, accepted for publication on JM