Interpolating Between the Gauge and Schrödinger Pictures of Quantum Dynamics.

ORAL

Abstract

Although spatial locality is explicit in the Heisenberg picture of quantum dynamics, spatial locality is not explicit in the Schrödinger picture equations of motion. The gauge picture is a modification of Schrödinger's picture such that locality is explicit in the equations of motion. In order to achieve this explicit locality, the gauge picture utilizes (1) a distinct wavefunction associated with each patch of space, and (2) time-dependent unitary connections to relate the Hilbert spaces associated with nearby patches. In this work, we show that by adding an additional spatially-local term to the gauge picture equations of motion, we can effectively interpolate between the gauge and Schrödinger pictures, such that when this additional term has a large coefficient, all of the gauge picture wavefunctions approach the Schrödginer picture wavefunction (and the connections approach the identity).

* This research was supported in part by the Welch Foundation through Grant No. C-2166-20230405, and by the National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant No. 2919.02.

Publication: arXiv:2307.02369

Presenters

  • Sayak Guha Roy

    Rice University

Authors

  • Sayak Guha Roy

    Rice University

  • Kevin Slagle

    Rice University