Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics

(see "Symmetry in Physics", J.P. Elliott and P.G. Dawber, The Macmillan Press, London)

Quantum-mechanical wave equation which determines the th

energy level of the system using the wave function for the th
state :

is the Hamiltonian operator for the system.

Consider a group of transformations whose elements

commute with

is invariant under or totally symmetric with respect to the

elements of .

What are the properties of ?

 Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics (2)

Examine the effect of on :

Hence is also an eigenfunction of with eigenvalue .

Two cases:
is nondegenerate. In this case we have

where is some nondegenerate irrep of . We can thus

label the wave function fully as .
 Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics (3)

Other case:
is -fold degenerate. In this case there are partner
functions , where

and is some representation of . We can label our wave

functions as . Is irreducible?
 Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics (4)

Suppose is reducible. Then we can reduce it so that all

D are block diagonal, corresponding to irreducible
representations.
This will transform the among themselves into a new
basis, say , for different possible values of and .
But since each is an irrep we now have

so the effect of any is to mix only the with the same value
of , not with any other value. So why should different values
be degenerate (except by accident)?
So our supposition leads to an ambiguity, and must be
irreducible, except for accidental degeneracy.
 Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics (5)

So, wave functions for different energy levels transform as

basis functions for irreducible representations of the group ,
where .

This is the key. If we know the properties of , we can classify

the wave functions.

Further, the same group-theoretical structure will tell us about

the spectroscopy of the system.
 Symmetries of the nuclear Hamiltonian
(exact or almost exact)
1. Translational invariance Continuous
2. Galilean invariance (or Lorentz transformations
invariance) (appear to be
3. Rotational invariance universally valid)
4. Time reversal
5. Parity (space reflection)
6. Charge independence and isobaric
symmetry
7. Baryon and lepton number symmetry
8. Permutation between the two nucleons
(imposed by the exclusion principle)

Dynamical symmetries
apply in certain cases
provide useful coupling schemes

1. SU(4) symmetry (Wigner supermultiplet)

2. SU(2) symmetry (seniority)
3. SU(3) symmetry (Elliott model)
4. IBM symmetries
Scalars, Vectors, Tensors…
(recollection)
Orthogonal transformations
• det(U)=1 - usual rotations
• det(U)=-1 - special rotations
pseudo-scalars, axial vectors…

Translational Invariance

r r r r -1
rk '= rk - a = U rk U
r r r r
pk '= pk , sk '= sk
r Ï i r r¸
U (a ) = expÌ- aP ˝
Ó h ˛

Total momentum (nucleons,

mesons, photons, leptons, etc.)
Transformation generator
 Time displacement

Ïi ¸
U (t 0 ) = expÌ t0 H ˝
Óh ˛

Rotations (space isotropy)

r rr
R ( c ) = exp -i cI { }
[Ix ,I y ] = iI z (+ cycl.)

Total angular momentum

Transformation generator
SU(2) group!

Rotational states labeled by the total angular

momentum quantum numbers IM
 Galilean (Lorentz) Invariance
In atomic nucleus v2/c2<0.1, i.e., kinematics
is nonrelativistic
r r
rk '= rk
r r r r r r
v k '= v k - u, pk '= pk - mk u
r r
sk '= sk

r Ïi r r ¸
U (u ) = expÌ u MRc.m .˝
Óh ˛
r 1
M = Â mk , Rc .m. = Â mk rk ,
k M k
r2 Such a separation can be done
P
H = Hint r + for Galilean-invariant
2M interactions

Depends only on relative coordinates and velocities!

 Galilean (Lorentz) Invariance (cont.)

i r 1 r no new conservation laws

[H , Rc.m .] = P and quantum numbers!
h M

Relativistic generalization

• Center-of-mass coordinate cannot be introduced

in a relativistically covariant manner
• All powers of c.m. momentum are present
• Unitary transformation contains gradient terms
and spin-dependent pieces!
 Space Reflection (Parity)
r r r -1
rk '= - rk = P rk P
r r r r
pk '= - pk , sk '= sk
r r r r
PU( a) = U (-a)P, PR(c ) = R (c )P
2
P Y = p Y , P = 1 fi p = ±1
The ground state of a nucleon is an eigenstate of P
Parity is violated by weak interaction. The simplest of a parity-violated
interaction requires a pseudoscalar field. If one assumes rotational
invariance, the field looks like
1 rr r r rr
{spVo d d( r ) + Vo d d( r )sp} (*)
mc rr
sr is odd with respect to T

The interaction (*) produces a very small parity mixing

Parity-violating matrix elements

Ip=- are of the order of 0.1 eV. This
leads to the mixing amplitude of
Ip=+ the order of 10-7
Experminental test of parity violation
(Lee and Yang, 1956; Wu et al. 1957)

r r
pb Ii ≠ 0!
pseudoscalar

Parity violation in a
beta decay of polarized
60Co