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 R∋t↦Ut. Then Stone's theorem implies that Ut=eitA for some self-adjoint operator A. Similarly, let R∋t↦Ut 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