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The Group U(1), Electromagnetism's Gauge Symmetry ...

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The Group U(1), Electromagnetism's Gauge Symmetry ...

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Apr 30, 2009 - Recall that time reflection requires recall, memories of the path taken, while space reflection involves mirrors. On pleasing aspect of this ...

Proper time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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By contrast, coordinate time is the time between two events as measured by an ... 2.1 Example 1: The twin "paradox"; 2.2 Example 2: The rotating disk ... the proper time interval Δτ between two events along a timelike path P is given by the line integral ..... By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.


World line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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1 Usage in physics; 2 World lines as a tool to describe events ... Each event can be labeled by four numbers: a time coordinate and three space coordinates; thus ... A world line traces out the path of a single point in spacetime. ... One usually takes the proper time of an object or an observer as the curve parameter \tau ...

Minkowski diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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1 Basics; 2 Path-time diagram in Newtonian physics; 3 Minkowski diagram in special ... The black axes labelled x and ct on the adjoining diagram are the coordinate ... The scales on the axes are given as follows: If U is the unit length on the ...

[PDF]Coordinates and Proper Time - MIT

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Jan 31, 2003 - These notes supplement Chapter 1 of EBH (Exploring Black Holes by Taylor ... You should be familiar with these words and their meaning. ... speaking, we only use the word “worldline” when referring to the path taken by a ...

Schwarzschild Coordinate Time - MathPages

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This gives the Schwarzschild metric, which, for purely radial paths, is simply ... However, the Schwarzschild time coordinate t appears only as the squared differential, ... Thus, given any labeling of events (t, r) that satisfies the above metric, the .... at r = 2m (where v/u = ±1), we are free to add different constants, C1 and C2, ...

Radial Paths in a Spherically Symmetrical Field - MathPages

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where t is the time coordinate, r is the radial coordinate, q and f are the usual ... Thus the metric tensor for this two-dimensional space is given by the diagonal matrix ... define x1 = t and x2 = r, and then the equations for the geodesic paths in this ..... where, as noted previously, the parameter r is treated as a function of u and v ...

Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later

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Vesselin Petkov - 2010 - ‎Science
the “straight” lines of Euclidean space geometry as the paths of “free” particles and ... R, which records the (absolute) time of each event in U. The physical ... The simultaneity subsets of U are those subsets of U of the form S.t/ D T 1.t/ for t 2 ... a free particle (a smooth map R ! U) has a coordinate representation given by t ! .t; ...

[DOC]RECOMMENDATION ITU-R TF.1010-1 - Relativistic effects ...

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1 that for calculating coordinate time intervals in the vicinity of the Earth (out to ... As the area AE is swept, it is taken as positive when the projection of the path of ... When the height h of the clock is less than 24 km above the geoid, U may be ...

[PDF]Physics 140 HOMEWORK Chapter 4A Q1. Figure 4-21 ...

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Figure 4-21 shows the path taken by a skunk foraging for trash food, from ... You are to launch a rocket, from just above the ground, with one of the following initial velocity vectors: (1) v0 = 20ı+ 70 ˆ , (2) v0 = −20ı+ 70 ˆ , (3) v0 = 20ı−70ˆ , and (4) v0 ... air, rank the paths according to (a) time of flight, (b) initial vertical velocity ...


6.4  Radial Paths in a Spherically Symmetrical Field


It is no longer clear which way is up even if one wants to rise.
                                                                                      David Riesman, 1950

In this section we consider the simple spacetime trajectory of a test particle moving radially with respect to a spherical mass. By “test particle” we mean a particle that is sufficiently small in comparison with the gravitating spherical mass so that the particle’s contribution to the overall gravitational field is negligible. Hence we are really just evaluating empty geodesic trajectories in the spacetime surrounding the central mass, i.e., we are considering the one-body problem. As we saw in Section 6.1, the field equations of general relativity imply that the metric of spacetime in the region surrounding an isolated spherical mass m can be written as
where t is the time coordinate, r is the radial coordinate, q and f are the usual angles for polar coordinates, and τ is the proper time. Since we're interested in purely radial motions, the differentials of the angles dq and df are zero, and we're left with a two-dimensional surface with the coordinates t and r, with the metric
Thus the metric tensor for this two-dimensional space is given by the diagonal matrix
which has determinant g = -1. The inverse of the covariant tensor guv is the contravariant tensor
To make use of index notation we define x1 = t and x2 = r, and then the equations for the geodesic paths in this manifold can be expressed as
where summation is implied over any indices that are repeated in a given product, and Gijk denotes the Christoffel symbols. Note that the index i can be either 1 or 2, so the above expression actually represents two differential equations involving the 1st and 2nd derivatives of our coordinates x1 and x2 (which, remember, are just t and r) with respect to the proper time t for timelike paths.
The Christoffel symbol is defined in terms of the partial derivatives of the components of the metric tensor as follows
Taking the partials of the components of our guv with respect to t and r we find that they are all zero, with the exception of
Combining this with the fact that the only non-zero components of the inverse metric tensor guv are g11 and g22, we find that the only non-zero Christoffel symbols are
So, substituting these expressions into the geodesic formula (2), and reverting back to the symbols t and r for our coordinates, we have the two ordinary differential equations for the geodesic paths on the surface
These equations can be integrated in closed form (see below), but they can also be directly integrated numerically using small incremental steps of dτ. For any given initial position and trajectory we can generate the subsequent geodesic path in terms of r as a function of t. We find that such paths invariably go to infinite t as r approaches 2m. Is our two-dimensional surface actually singular at r = 2m, or are the coordinates simply ill-behaved (like longitude at the North pole)?
As we saw above, the surface has an invariant Gaussian curvature at each point. Let's determine the curvature to see if anything strange occurs at r = 2m. The curvature can be computed in terms of the components of the metric tensor and their first and second partial derivatives. The non-zero first derivatives for our surface (and the determinant g = -1) were noted above. The only non-zero second derivatives are
So we can compute the intrinsic curvature of our surface using Gauss's formula for the curvature invariant K of a two-dimensional surface given in Section 5.3. Inserting the metric components and derivatives for our surface into that equation gives the intrinsic curvature
Therefore, at r = 2m the curvature of this surface is -1/(4m2), which is certainly finite, and in fact can be made arbitrarily small for sufficiently large m. The only singularity in the intrinsic curvature of the surface occurs at r = 0.
In order to solve the geodesic equations (3) for r as a function of the proper time t we first re-write the second geodesic equation in the form
Since the basic line element (1) implies
it follows that the quantity in the square brackets in (4) is unity, so we have
Furthermore, notice that the derivative with respect to τ of the expression on the right hand side equation (5) is
where we’ve made use of equation (6). Therefore, the expression in the square brackets on the left side is a constant (corresponding to the constant sum of potential plus kinetic energy), whose value for any given trajectory can be determined at any convenient point. For a bounded trajectory there is a radial position R, the apogee of the path, where dr/dτ = 0, and hence for any such trajectory we have
On the other hand, for an unbounded trajectory there is no apogee, but instead the velocity dr/dt approaches an asymptotic value V as r goes to infinity. Noting that dr/dτ = (dr/dt)(dt/dτ) and making use of the basic line element (1) to give dt/dτ in terms of dr/dt, we have
Therefore, for an unbounded radial trajectory with asymptotic speed V we have
As an aside, we note that although we’ve asserted that the quantity in square brackets on the right side of equation (4) is unity, the denominator is zero at r = 2m, so the expression is actually singular at that point. However, it is a removable singularity, because the numerator also goes to zero at r = 2m, canceling the zero in the denominator. This implies that (dr/dt)2 is invariably forced to 1 - 2m/R precisely at r = 2m for bounded trajectories, and to 1/(1−V2) for unbounded trajectories.
Focusing on bounded trajectories, we return to (7a) and note that it implies
Taking the square root and re-arranging terms, this gives
We have the integral
To simplify this result, we make a change of variables by defining the argument of the inverse sine to be the cosine of some angle a. Thus we define a such that cos(a) = 2r/R – 1, which implies
Inserting this into the preceding equation gives the elapsed proper time between r1 = R and r2 = r as
This shows that equation (6) has the same closed-form solution as does radial free-fall in Newtonian mechanics (as shown in Section 4.3 if t is identified with Newton's coordinate time t), namely, the parametric "cycloid relations". A plot of this r versus t corresponds to the position of a point on the rim of a rolling wheel of radius R/2, where a is the angle of the wheel.
We can also express the Schwarzschild coordinate time t explicitly in terms of a by multiplying the two relations
to give
Substituting the parametric expression for r into this equation, multiplying through by da, and integrating both sides, we get
The integral can be evaluated explicitly to give
Now, making use of the trigonometric identity
the equation can be written in the form
where Q = . For values of a corresponding to r < 2m the argument of the logarithm is negative, and hence the value of the logarithm is offset by pi. This occurs because, in such cases, we are integrating from a = 0 where r = R (which is greater than 2m) to a value of a corresponding to r less than 2m, and hence we must perform a complex integration around the singularity at r = 2m, offsetting the result by ±pi (assuming the path of integration doesn’t make any complete loops around the singularity). This is not surprising, because the t coordinates are discontinuous at r = 2m, so we cannot unambiguously “carry over” the labeling of the t coordinates in the region r > 2m to the region r < 2m. In general, since the metric coefficients are independent of t, the t labels for events outside r = 2m can all be offset by a constant value without affecting any of our results, and likewise the t labels for events inside r = 2m can all be offset by a constant value. Moreover, the t label offsets for the inner and outer regions are independent of each other, because of the discontinuity at r = 2m. Lacking any definite interior boundary condition, we are free to choose the interior offset such that t is real-valued. The real part of ln(z) for any complex z, positive or negative, is ln(|z|), so we can simply stipulate that we will take the absolute value of the argument of the logarithm, i.e., we define the t coordinates by
This gives a purely real-valued labeling of the t coordinates that satisfies the condition on the derivative at every point (except of course where the t coordinates are singular at r = 2m). Strictly speaking, we could further offset the interior labels by any real constant, so the above expression for the coordinate time of a free-falling particle is not unique, but it is the simplest matching of the t labels. On this basis, a typical timelike radial orbit is illustrated below, both in terms of proper time and Schwarzschild coordinate time, as function of the parameter a.
A notable feature of this trajectory is its temporal symmetry. Not only is there a continuous geodesic path from the apogee down through the Schwarzschild radius to the singularity at r = 0, there is also a continuous geodesic path from the singularity up through the Schwarzschild radius to the apogee. This was to be expected in view of the temporal symmetry of the field equations in general, and the Schwarzschild metric in particular, but it might seem inconsistent with the well-known fact that once a particle has crossed from outside to inside the Schwarzschild radius it can never re-emerge. However, there is no inconsistency, because the emerging particle has never crossed from outside to inside that radius.
To understand the full set of possible trajectories consistent with the Schwarzschild metric, it’s useful to first note an ambiguity present in all pseudo-Riemannian metrics due to their quadratic character. Consider the Minkowski metric (dt)2 = (dt)2 – (dx)2, which obviously doesn’t constrain the signs of the differentials, because they each appear squared. At constant x this metric requires (dt/dt)2 = 1, but the ratio dt/dt itself can be either +1 or −1. Strictly speaking, we are free to choose whether the proper time along a given path increases or decreases as the coordinate time increases. We might fancifully imagine that the Minkowski metric actually entails two separate universes, with proper time increasing with coordinate time in one, and decreasing with coordinate in the other. Alternatively we could imagine a single universe with two families of particles, whose proper times increase in opposite directions of the coordinate time t. (In fact, John Wheeler once speculated that anti-matter particles might be modeled as particles moving backward in time.) However, with a fixed metric like the Minkowski metric, it’s easy to just arbitrarily stipulate the same sign for dt and dt for every path, and then continuity requires that this always remains true (since timelike paths cannot “turn around” in Minkowski space).
The same quadratic ambiguity arises when considering the Schwarzschild metric, but in this case the various possible signs of the differentials are more inter-related, because the coefficients of the metric change signs at r = 2m. For values of r greater than 2m we have a metric of the form (dt)2 = (dt)2 – (dr)2 neglecting scale factors, whereas for values of r less than 2m the metric takes the form (dt)2 = (dr)2 – (dt)2. In the former case, |dt| must always equal or exceed |dt|, but in the latter case |dr| must equal or exceed |dt|. Thus, outside the Schwarzschild radius we must choose the sign of dt/dt, and inside that radius we must choose the sign of dr/dt. The signs of these ratios cannot change along any particle’s path in their respective regions. In effect, the radius r serves as the “time” coordinate inside the Schwarzschild radius.
Now, by analytic continuation, it can be shown that a path crossing the Schwarzschild radius from an outer region must enter an inner region with negative dr/dt. This is why a particle falling inward through the Schwarzschild radius must thereafter continue to reach smaller and smaller values of r. It cannot “turn around”, but must continue down to r = 0. However, conversely, it can be shown that a particle passing outward through the Schwarzschild radius must have come from an inner region of positive dr/dt. Hence if we observe objects falling into the inner region, and other objects emerging from the inner region, we seem forced to conclude that there are two physically distinct inner regions, or else that there exist closed spacetime loops if we insist on a single interior region. One or the other of these consequences is unavoidable if we take seriously the analytic continuation of all geodesics consistent with the Schwarzschild metric. The existence of two distinct inner regions is perhaps not surprising if we note that an in-falling object requires infinite coordinate time to cross the boundary at r = 2m, and conversely an out-going object requires infinite coordinate time to emerge. Clearly these are two very different classes of objects, one coming from the beginning of coordinate time, and the other departing to the end of coordinate time. The same reasoning leads to the potential existence of a second outer region, with negative dt/dt, so the full extent of the manifold entailed by the Schwarzschild metric, if fully developed, consists of four distinct regions. Thus the consideration of simple radial trajectories in Schwarzschild spacetime leads unavoidably to cosmological issues, which are described more fully in the discussions of “black holes” in Section 7.
In the preceding discussion we have focused on time-like radial paths, taking the proper time τ as the path length parameter. As noted in Section 6.1, for light-like paths we have dτ = 0 and so the metric (1) reduces to simply (1 – 2m/r)2(dt)2 = (dr)2, and thus we have, for any r2 and r1 greater than 2m, the coordinate time difference
As expected, if m = 0 this reduces to (t2 – t1) = ±(r2 – r1). For non-zero m, we see that dr/dt = 0 at r = 2m (where these coordinates are ill-conditioned), and it isn’t obvious from this expression how to extrapolate through that boundary.
One way of clarifying all possible radial paths, time-like and light-like, consistent with the Schwarzschild solution is to re-write the radial line element (1) as
If we define a new radial coordinate r so that the second term in the square brackets is (dr)2, then light rays will be diagonal lines when plotted in terms of t and r. Thus we set
Notice that either sign is possible, since only the squared differential appears in (9). Integrating both sides and choosing a suitable constant of integration, we define r explicitly by
The absolute value is used to reverse the signs at r = 2m, so that the argument of the logarithm is always non-negative. (Note that the derivative of r with respect to r is invariant under reversal of sign of the argument of the logarithm.) This relation can also be written in the form
so we can write the radial Schwarzschild line element (9) in the form
where r is now regarded as a function of r. The leading coefficient on the right side is well-behaved except at r = 0, but the trailing coefficient is singular at r = 2m, where r is infinite. Since dt is finite at that point, we infer that (dt)2 – (dr)2 must be identically zero at that point. We wish to absorb the trailing coefficient into the differentials to give an explicitly finite expression for (dt)2. Notice that in terms of coordinates A and B defined such that r = A+B and t = A-B the line element has the form
Recalling that d(ex) = exdx, we see that we can absorb the exponential coefficients into the differentials by simply defining the coordinates
The line element in terms of these coordinates has the simple form
For convenience we can now return to the orthogonal hyperbolic form by making one more change of coordinates, defining u and v such that U = u+v and V = u-v. Making these substitutions, we get
where, as noted previously, the parameter r is treated as a function of u and v. These are called Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates. Making all the substitutions for the changes of variables, we see that they are given explicitly as functions of r and t by
The signs for the case r < 2m are positive in the collapsing interior region and negative in the expanding interior region. A plot of the Schwarzschild solution in terms of these coordinates is shown below.
The dotted curve represents a complete time-like radial geodesic. As discussed previously, this curve is temporally symmetrical, emerging from the r = 0 singularity, rising through the r = 2m horizon to the apogee (which is at 2.5m in this plot), and then falling back through the r = 2m horizon to the singularity at r = 0. These coordinates confirm that there are actually two singularities in this fully developed solution. The lower r = 0 locus in the plot is the singularity at the center of a “white hole”, and r is always increasing with proper time in the region surrounding this singularity. The upper r = 0 locus is the singularity at the center of a “black hole”, and r is always decreasing with proper time in the region surrounding this singularity. The spatial region to the right of the v axis is our usual external universe, whereas the mirror region on the left is a separate universe. However, the physical applicability of this analytically complete solution is highly dubious, because no known physical process would lead to such a result. The “black holes” to be discussed in Section 7, hypothesized to result from the gravitational collapse of stars, do not entail this complete solution, so the global topology of the complete Schwarzschild solution, as exhibited by the Kruskal coordinates, is presumably of only theoretical interest.

hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu visualphysics.org/qa/group-u1-electromagnetisms-gauge-symmetry


http://visualphysics.org/qa/group-u1-electromagnetisms-gauge-symmetry

gauge theory in 4D with Monte-Carlo heatbath update and measure


The h Bar - 2015-08-04 (page 1 of 2)

https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/71/2015/8/4/0-17
Aug 4, 2015 - ... to [this question](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/138217/ .... gauge theory in 4D with Monte-Carlo heatbath update and measure ...

The h Bar - 2015-08-03 (page 3 of 3)

https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/71/2015/8/3/23-24
Aug 3, 2015 - ... MC-Metropolis to compare it against the current MC-Heatbath update .... General chat for Physics Stack Exchange (physics.stackexchange.

The h Bar - 2015-07-10 (page 1 of 3)

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/71/2015/7/10/0-13
Jul 10, 2015 - ... chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/22686957#22686957 .... of the Kennedy-Pendleton heatbath algorithm anywhere...do I really ...

a photon contains vibrating electric and magnetic fields.

phymath999.blogspot.com/.../a-photon-contains-vibra... Translate this page
Dec 16, 2013 - physics.stackexchange.com/. .... brain01 heatbath 原子核可以被看成與一個相當複雜的等效位勢在交互作用,由于原子具有复... gr01 关于相对论和 ...

The Hilbert space of all realistic systems is infinite-dimensional

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Jan 31, 2015 - Maybe someone in theoreticalphysics.stackexchange.com could ..... white heatbath 热浴谐振子耦合普朗克常数planck 長方體內每一個可存在.

phymath999: 把测量者放在了一个特殊的位置上了: Hilbert ...

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Jan 28, 2015 - Maybe someone in theoreticalphysics.stackexchange.com could ..... white heatbath 热浴谐振子耦合普朗克常数planck 長方體內每一個可存在.

phymath999: Cauchy-Schwarz不等式之本质与意义; short ...

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Jan 19, 2015 - Maybe someone in theoreticalphysics.stackexchange.com could ..... white heatbath 热浴谐振子耦合普朗克常数planck 長方體內每一個可存在.

phymath999: white01 理想气体分子只有动能,没势能,当然 ...

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Jan 15, 2015 - 楼主请看这里: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/67804

The Fock space is a special kind of Hilbert space. It is the Hilbert space of a free field theory or, equivalently, an infinite-dimensional harmonic oscillator

The Fock space is a special kind of Hilbert space. It is the Hilbert space of a free field theory or, equivalently, an infinite-dimensional harmonic oscillator

The Hilbert space of all realistic systems is infinite-dimensional; the fock space of quantum field theory include states which have many particles in it. however, this does not mean the properties of the system is simple to work out by following every particles in that state.
The Hilbert space of all realistic systems is infinite-dimensional;


Where does the wave function of the universe live? Please describe its home

Where does the wave function of the universe live? Please describe its home.
I think this is the Hilbert space of the universe. (Greater or lesser, depending on which church you belong to.) Or maybe it is the Fock space of the universe, or some still bigger, yet more complicated stringy thingy.
I will leave it to you whether you want to describe the observable universe, the total universe, or even the multiverse.
Please give a reasonably accurate and succinct mathematical description, including at least dimensionality.
Thank you.
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2  
I dont know why this is but the funny formulation of this question makes me chuckle somehow ;-). Stephen Hawking writes a bit about this issue in his "Great Design" book. He considers some kind of a path integral over the whole multiverse (each path corresponds to the evolution of one of the 10^**** individual members). The evolution of our own universe from the beginning to the present would then be described by the most probable (or classical limit) path. –  Dilaton Apr 10 '12 at 13:21
    
@Dilaton: I guess the book was grand design.. –  Vineet Menon Apr 10 '12 at 15:27
    
@VineetMenon Whoops yes, you are right. The typo is probably due to the fact that I thinkd this design is great, ha ha :-) –  Dilaton Apr 10 '12 at 15:32
    
I don't think there is any consensus about what a wavefunction of the universe means, let alone how to formulate it. Maybe someone in theoreticalphysics.stackexchange.com could comment. –  John Rennie Apr 10 '12 at 17:55

2 Answers 2


The wave function lives in the quantum café, see the segment from 3:40 or so to the end of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unJ2ajHH-94
More seriously, a wave function is a more special name of the "state vector" which is the element of the Hilbert space H  , a complex vector space with an inner product. The Hilbert space of all realistic systems is infinite-dimensional; for an infinite dimension, one can't really say whether the basis is countable or as large as a continuum because these two bases are actually fully equivalent.
Finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces are only used as simplified toy models for some aspects of some physical systems. But they're still very important in theory and practice because realistic situations are often composed of similar small Hilbert spaces by taking tensor products. The two-dimensional Hilbert spaces (e.g. spin-up vs spin-down) seem very simple but they're already very rich and are used as tools to teach quantum mechanics. Quantum computing usually takes place in Hilbert spaces for N  qubits which is 2 N   -dimensional, also finite-dimensional. The remaining infinitely many states of a real physical system are assumed to be inaccessible so we may "truncate" the Hilbert space. But note that systems as simple as en electron orbiting a proton or a harmonic oscillator already have an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space.
The Fock space is a special kind of Hilbert space. It is the Hilbert space of a free field theory or, equivalently, an infinite-dimensional harmonic oscillator. One usually defines the free - bilinear - Hamiltonian on the Fock space, too. If we don't say that there's a Hamiltonian, the identity of the Fock space is actually meaningless because all infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces are isomorphic or "unitary equivalent" to each other.
So the Fock space isn't really "something completely different" (or larger) than the Hilbert space; it's a special case of it. The same thing holds for the Hilbert spaces associated with any theory you can think of (describing the world around us or describing a fictitious or hypothetical world), whether it's the Standard Model, the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, or – the most comprehensive theory – String Theory. All these theories, much like any other theories respecting the postulates of quantum mechanics, have their own Hilbert space and all these infinite-dimensional spaces in string theory or a simple infinite-dimensional harmonic oscillator or even a simple Hydrogen atom are actually isomorphic to each other. The theories only differ by different Hamiltonians – or other dynamical laws that describe the evolution in time.
Also, one should mention that the actual state of the physical system isn't given by all the information included in an element of the Hilbert space. The phase and the absolute normalization – i.e. the full multiplicative factor that may be complex – is unphysical. So the space of inequivalent "pure states" is actually the quotient H/C    .
Aside from "wave functions" i.e. pure states that are elements of the Hilbert space, up to a normalization, one may also describe a physical system by a more general "density matrix" which lives in the space of Hermitian matrices ρ  . For pure states, ρ=|ψψ|  and the phase cancels. However, there are also more general mixed states that are superpositions of similar terms.
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I am having a lot of trouble with this one universal infinite dimensional Hilbert space. if the dimensionality of the universe doesn't tell us, how do we know if there is one spatial dimension or three or seventy seven? Also how do we know how many particles are in our universe? TIA –  Jim Graber Apr 11 '12 at 12:25
2  
The Hilbert space is a mathematical construction that has essentially nothing to do with real space. So saying that the Hilbert space is infinite-dimensional does not imply anything about the spatial dimensionality of the universe. That is a separate issue. –  David Z Apr 11 '12 at 19:40
    
Dear @Jim, I agree with David. In QFT, you may try to determine the spacetime dimensions by isolating one-particle states and finding that the Hilbert space of one-particle states has a simple basis diffeomorphic to R d1   , the spatial momentum, or in an equivalent way. But the Hilbert space is much greater than the regular space. Every basis vector of the Hilbert space in a basis corresponds to one mutually exclusive state in which the whole physical system may be. There are usually infinitely many. –  Luboš Motl Apr 12 '12 at 12:17
    
So the choice of a greater or lesser Hilbert space only makes a difference for finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces? Because for an infinite Hilbert space the two are the same? Or at least isomorphic? –  Jim Graber Apr 14 '12 at 10:33
    
The youtube video you linked to is dead. Maybe the wave function is vacationing at the Hilbert Hotel? .... I'll see myself out –  David H Sep 7 '13 at 3:54

The word "space" in mathematics is not the same ontological object as physical space. It is sort of equivalent to asking, in classical physics, where is the space of all velocity vectors located? Its not that they are actually somewhere "out there", they are just mathematical abstractions from which useful information can be extracted and inferences can be made unto measurable quantities which are analogous to the abstraction. A vector space (Hilbert, Fock, and many other variations of vector spaces exist!) is a mathematical object which makes convenient many computations one can do with sets of numbers(vectors, matrices, tensors, etc...) endowed with human-invented algebraic properties (closure, commutativity, associativity, etc...). Quantum mechanics makes use of linear algebra almost solely for the fact that one can extract 'spectrum' of eigenvalues which are analogous to the measurable discrete quantities one finds when dealing with such objects.


一叶障目,一叶知秋


三维旋转:旋转矩阵,欧拉角,四元数

原文见我的博客主站,欢迎大家过去评论。
如何描述三维空间中刚体的旋转,是个有趣的问题。具体地说,就是刚体上的任意一个点P(x, y, z)围绕过原点的轴(i, j, k)旋转θ,求旋转后的点P\'(x\', y\', z\')。

旋转矩阵

旋转矩阵乘以点P的齐次坐标,得到旋转后的点P',因此旋转矩阵可以描述旋转,
⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ x  y  z  1 ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ =R⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ xyz1 ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥  

绕x,y,或z轴旋转θ的矩阵为:
R x (θ)=⎡ ⎣ ⎢ 100 0cosθsinθ 0sinθcosθ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥  

R y (θ)=⎡ ⎣ ⎢ cosθ0sinθ 010 sinθ0cosθ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥  

R z (θ)=⎡ ⎣ ⎢ cosθsinθ0 sinθcosθ0 001 ⎤ ⎦ ⎥  

所以,绕任意轴旋转的矩阵为
R x (p)R y (q)R z (θ)R y (q)R x (p) 

这表示:
1. 绕x轴旋转角度p使指定的旋转轴在xz平面上
2. 绕y轴旋转角度q使指定的旋转轴与z轴重合
3. 绕z轴旋转角度θ
4. 绕y轴旋转角度-q
5. 绕x轴旋转角度-p
其中,p和q的值需要用i,j,k计算出来。

欧拉角

欧拉角也可以描述三维刚体旋转,它将刚体绕过原点的轴(i,j,k)旋转θ,分解成三步(蓝色是起始坐标系,而红色的是旋转之后的坐标系。)。
 
1. 绕z轴旋转α,使x轴与N轴重合,N轴是旋转前后两个坐标系x-y平面的交线
2. 绕x轴(也就是N轴)旋转β,使z轴与旋转后的z轴重合
3. 绕z轴旋转γ,使坐标系与旋转后的完全重合
按照旋转轴的顺序,该组欧拉角被称为是“zxz顺规”的。对于顺规的次序,学术界没有明确的约定。
欧拉角的旋转矩阵为:
R z (α)R x (β)R z (γ) 

在旋转矩阵一节中,最先进行的旋转其矩阵在最右侧,说明该矩阵最先与点的齐次坐标相乘,旋转矩阵按照旋转的次序从右向左排列。而在欧拉角中,最先进行的旋转其旋转矩阵在最左边。这是因为,**对于前者(旋转矩阵),我们始终是以绝对参考系为参照来的,对于后者(欧拉角),我们每一次旋转的刻画都是基于刚体的坐标系。**比如,在欧拉角中的第2步,绕x轴旋转β,这里的x轴实际上是N轴了(而不是蓝色的x轴)。
为什么旋转参考系的不同会导致旋转矩阵次序的差异呢?细想一下便知,旋转矩阵左乘叠加用以描述三维变换效果的叠加,这本身就是基于绝对坐标系的,所以旋转矩阵一节没有疑问;而对于欧拉角一节的这种旋转方式,这样考虑:
1. 如果有一个“影子坐标系3”与原坐标系重合,然后首先进行了第3步(绕z轴旋转γ);
2. 然后有一个“影子坐标系2”也与原坐标系重合,然后与“影子坐标系3”一起(视作同一个刚体)进行了第二步;
3. 最后一个“影子坐标系1”,与前两个坐标系一起进行了第一步。
此时,考察“影子坐标系”1和2,他们就分别落在了欧拉角旋转的两个“快照”上,而“影子坐标系3”就落在旋转后的位置上(红色的)。而在上述过程中,“影子坐标系3”就是相对于绝对坐标系依次进行了第三步,第二步,和第一步。所以欧拉角的旋转矩阵写成那样,也是行得通的。
这个想法,我猜在很多第一人称游戏中,已经得到了广泛应用了。这样,玩家对人物的控制就可以绕开人物的实时状态(位置,角度等)直接对人物的模型矩阵产生影响。
万向节死锁是欧拉角的一个弊端,这是一个直观的例子

四元数

四元数是今天的主角,它能够很方便的刻画刚体绕任意轴的旋转。四元数是一种高阶复数,四元数q表示为:
q=(x,y,z,w)=xi+yj+zk+w 

其中,i,j,k满足:
i 2 =j 2 =k 2 =1 

ij=k,jk=i,ki=j 

由于i,j,k的性质和笛卡尔坐标系三个轴叉乘的性质很像,所以可以将四元数写成一个向量和一个实数组合的形式:
q=(v  +w)=((x,y,z),w) 

可以推导出四元数的一些运算性质,包括:
* 四元数乘法
q1q2=(v 1   ×v 2   +w 1 v 2   +w 2 v 1   ,w 1 w 2 v 1   v 2   ) 

* 共轭四元数
q  =(v  ,w) 

* 四元数的平方模
N(q)=N(v  )+w 2  

* 四元数的逆
q 1 =q  N(q)  

四元数可以看做是向量和实数的一种更加一般的形式,向量可以视作为实部为0的四元数,而实数可以是作为虚部为0的四元数。上述四元数的运算性质也是实数或向量的运算性质的更一般的形式。
四元数可用来刻画三维空间中的旋转,绕单位向量(x,y,z)表示的轴旋转θ,可令:
q=((x,y,z)sinθ2 ,cosθ2 ) 

刚体坐标系中的点p(P,0)(写成四元数的形式),旋转后的坐标p'为:
p  =qpq 1  

接下来我们来证明这一点。
首先,我们证明

qpq 1 =(sq)p(sq) 1  
其中s为实数。显然

(sq)p(sq) 1 =sqpq 1 s 1 =sqp 1  

此时,我们可以将q看做是单位矩阵,因为如果q不是单位矩阵,我们就可以乘以一个常数s将其化为单位矩阵。
然后,我们证明qpq^{-1}和p的模长相等
下面将q视为单位四元数:
q 1 =q   

四元数q的标量:
S(q)=(q+q  )/2 

那么:
2S(qpq 1 )=2S(qpq  )=qpq  +(qpq  )  =qpq  +qp  q  =q(p+p  )q  =q2S(p)q  =2S(p) 

最后,我们证明
p  =qpq   

如图所示,u为旋转轴,旋转角度为σ,向量v旋转到w处。旋转到σ/2处为k(图中未标出)。

下面也用相同的字母指代四元数,如u就表示向量u的四元数形式((ux,uy,uz),0)。
首先,令u方向上的单位向量为u(为了方便,命名不变,后面的u都是指旋转轴方向的单位四元数),那么根据q的定义,参见四元数乘法法则:
q=(u  sinθ2 ,cosθ2 )=(v  ×k  ,v  k  )=(v  ,0)(k  ,0)=kv   

现在令
w=qvq   

如果能证明w与v的夹角是σ,那么就说明w确实是v旋转σ得到的,整个命题就得证了。
注意v,k和w都是实部为0的单位四元数,表示单位向量,我们有:
wk  =(qvq 1 )k  =qvq  k  =qvvk  k  =q 

所以
wk  =kv   

上面的式子拆分成实部和虚部,虚部表明w与-k的平面和k与-v的平面重合,实部表明w和-k之间的夹角与k和-v之间的夹角相等,都是π-σ/2。这就说明了w与v的夹角是σ,原命题就得证了。