Wigner Quantization of Hamiltonians Describing Harmonic Oscillators Coupled by a General Interaction Matrix

Abstract

In a system of coupled harmonic oscillators, the interaction can be represented by a real, symmetric and positive definite interaction matrix. The quantization of a Hamiltonian describing such a system has been done in the canonical case. In this paper, we take a more general approach and look at the system as a Wigner quantum system. Hereby, one does not assume the canonical commutation relations, but instead one just requires the compatibility between the Hamilton and Heisenberg equations. Solutions of this problem are related to the Lie superalgebras gl(1|n) and osp(1|2n). We determine the spectrum of the considered Hamiltonian in specific representations of these Lie superalgebras and discuss the results in detail. We also make the connection with the well-known canonical case.

Keywords

• Wigner quantization
• solvable Hamiltonians
• Lie superalgebra representations