Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,082 questions , 2,232 unanswered
5,353 answers , 22,789 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Is the time derivative of the WKB phase globally defined?

+ 4 like - 0 dislike
371 views

Let $Q$ and $\mathcal{L}$ be smooth n-dimensional manifolds and $\iota_t:\mathcal{L}\rightarrow T^*Q$ a time-dependent Lagrangian embedding that is smooth in $t$ and satisfies the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition for a fixed value of $\hbar$. Thus, if $\vartheta$ is the canonical 1-form on $T^*Q$ and $m_{\iota_t}$ is the Maslov class of the embedding $\iota_t$,the real cohomology class $$ [\iota_t^*\vartheta]-\frac{\pi\hbar}{2}m_{\iota_t}$$ takes values in $\hbar\mathbb{Z}$.

Fix a $t\in\mathbb{R}$. Because $\iota_t^*\vartheta$ is closed, we can choose an open cover $\{\Lambda_\alpha\}$ for $\mathcal{L}$ such that $\iota_t^*\vartheta=d S_t^\alpha$ on $\Lambda_\alpha$. Because the Bohr-Sommerfeld condition holds, the $S^\alpha_t$ can be chosen such that on $\Lambda_{\alpha\beta}=\Lambda_\alpha\cap\Lambda_\beta$, $$S^\alpha_t-S^\beta_t=\frac{\pi\hbar}{2}m_{\alpha\beta} ~\text{mod}~2\pi\hbar,$$ where the $m_{\alpha\beta}$ are the transition functions for the time-$t$ Maslov principal $\mathbb{Z}$-bundle over $\mathcal{L}$.

Now my question. I believe that, at least in a small open neighborhood of $t$, $m_{\alpha\beta}$ can be regarded as smooth integer-valued functions of time and that the $S^\alpha_t$ can be chosen to be smooth in $t$. I am therefore lead to the conclusion that $\frac{d}{dt}S^\alpha_t$ is a globally defined function on $\mathcal{L}$. Are my beliefs incorrect? Is it true that $\dot{S}_t=\frac{d}{dt} S_t$ is a well-defined function on $\mathcal{L}$?

I have a partial answer already. It turns out that $\dot{S}_t$ is globally defined in the special case where $\iota_t=\phi_t\circ\iota_0$, with $\phi_t$ the flow map of a globally Hamiltonian vector field on $T^*Q$; there is an explicit expression for $\dot{S}_t$ in terms of $\iota_t$ and the Hamiltonian function associated with $\phi_t$.

This post imported from StackExchange MathOverflow at 2015-05-27 22:07 (UTC), posted by SE-user Josh Burby
asked Jan 16, 2014 in Theoretical Physics by Josh Burby (120 points) [ no revision ]
retagged May 27, 2015

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysics$\varnothing$verflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...