Saturday, December 31, 2016

quantum mechanics - Canonical momentum in different coordinate system


The canonical momentum is defined as


$p_{i} = \frac {\partial L}{\partial \dot{q_{i}}} $, where $L$ is the Lagrangian.


So actually how does $p_{i}$ transform in one coordinate system $\textbf{q}$ to another coordinate system $\textbf{Q}$ ?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamiltonian_mechanics#Charged_particle_in_an_electromagnetic_field


When dealing with the Hamiltonian of the electromagnetic field, the derivation of $p_{j} = m \dot{x_j} + eA_j$ on the above link is usually written as $\textbf{p} = m \textbf{v} + e\textbf{A}$


but the derivation is based on using Cartesian coordinates, does it mean that $\textbf{p}$ is really a vector? If we are using another general coordinates, say, spherical coordinates, can we still have $\textbf{p} = m \textbf{v} + e\textbf{A}$ ? If no, I think the form of Hamiltonian in electromagnetic field


$H = \frac{(\textbf{p} - e\textbf{A})^2}{2m} + e\phi$


will only be valid in Cartesian coordinates. In any other coordinates, $H$ carries a different form!


Any comments are appreciated.





No comments:

Post a Comment

classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...