Wednesday, November 28, 2018

classical mechanics - Amplitude-phase decomposition as a canonical transformation


I am studying a classical dynamical system defined on CP2: the phase space is parametrized in terms of three complex coordinates ψi (i=1,2,3) and Hamilton's equations of motion take the form,


ıdψidt=Hψi,ıdψidt=Hψi.


I would like to make an amplitude-phase decomposition, replacing the three complex coordinates and their conjugates, {ψi,ψi}, with six real ones {ni,ϕi}, with


ψi=niexp(ıϕi)


But this transformation appears not to be canonical: instead of the usual,


ξΘΩξΘ=Ω,


where ξΘ is the Jacobian of the transformation and Ω is the symplectic block matrix, I get,


ξΘΩξΘ=1ıΩ.


Is the amplitude-phase decomposition not a canonical transformation? Or did I make a mistake?



I'm sure this is a standard problem, but I am very new to the idea of classical dynamics on complex manifolds and haven't gotten my bearings yet. Any reference suggestions would be welcome!



Answer



For simplicity consider the 1-d case, with ψ=ne2iϕ, then


iψt=i2˙nne2iϕne2iϕ2˙ϕ.


Similarly


Hψ=Hnnψ+Hϕϕψ=2ne2iϕHn+i2ne2iϕHϕ.


Equating the real and imaginary parts (with H real), we have


dndt=Hϕ;dϕdt=Hn.


The other governing equation for dψ/dt gives the same information. Hence, (n,ϕ) are canonical variables.


EDIT: As Ted Pudlik correctly pointed out, the above reasoning is incorrect. Why? Well, it's because I was being sloppy and got bit. Let's try this again.



As usual, we need to work at the order of the action in order to get coherent results.


Consider S=i˙ψψHdt.


Hamilton's principle states the dynamics of the system are given when S is stationary, and indeed this yields the set of Hamilton's equations you originally stated.


Next, we consider a different action, S defined as


S=2n˙ϕ2Hdt


for some undetermined H. Hamilton's principle yields (1) with HH.


For S and S to give the same dynamics, they must differ by a constant, ie


SS=dfdt dt


for some function f. Now, when we substitute in our two actions, we find


2n˙ϕ+˙nH+2n˙ϕ+2H dt



The perfect derivative integrates to 0 (we assume the wave is compact in time) and we are left with the requirement that for the transformation to be canonical, 2HH, as you pointed out in your comment.


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