Archive of posts on Jan 6, 2020

• Jan 6, 2020

  Use complex numbers as canonical variables

  In this article, I try exploring an idea: using complex numbers to combine pairs of canonical variables into complex variables: $\mathbf c\coloneqq\alpha\mathbf q+\mathrm i\beta\mathbf p$. It turns out that we can write canonical equations $\frac{\mathrm d\mathbf c}{\mathrm dt}=-2\mathrm i\alpha\beta\frac{\partial\mathcal H}{\partial\mathbf c^*}$, Poisson brackets $\left\{f,g\right\}=-2\mathrm i\alpha\beta \left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial\mathbf c}\cdot \frac{\partial g}{\partial\mathbf c^*}- \frac{\partial f}{\partial\mathbf c^*}\cdot \frac{\partial g}{\partial\mathbf c}\right)$, and canonical transformations $\frac{\partial\mathbf c^*}{\partial\mathbf c'^*}= \frac{\partial\mathbf c'}{\partial\mathbf c}, \frac{\partial\mathbf c}{\partial\mathbf c'^*}= -\frac{\partial\mathbf c'}{\partial\mathbf c^*}$ in these complex numbers. Finally, I show two examples of using them in real problems: a free particle, and a harmonic oscillator.

  • Categories: physics
  • Tags: classical mechanics, canonical transformation, hamiltonian, complex, long paper