Tuesday, 20 June 2017

quantum mechanics - What is the generator of an anti-unitary operator?


As the generator of a Unitary operator is a Hermitian operator, is the generator of an Anti-Unitary operator Anti-Hermitian?



Answer



I think you mean the following. Consider a (strongly continuous) one-parameter group of unitary operators RtUt. Then Stone's theorem implies that Ut=eitA for some self-adjoint operator A. Similarly, let RtUt be a (strongly continuous) one-parameter group of anti-unitary operators. Is there a corresponding version of Stone's theorem where Ut=eitA for some antiself-adjoint operator A?


The answer is negative simply because it does not exist anything like a one-parameter group of anti-unitary operators. Since Ut=Ut/2Ut/2, every Ut must be linear even if Ut/2 is antilinear (the product of two antilinear operators is linear).


This is the reason why antiunitary operators only describe discrete symmetries.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...