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More than 15 years ago, a new approach to quantum mechanics was suggested, in which Hermiticity of the Hamiltonian was to be replaced by invariance under a discrete symmetry, the product of parity and time-reversal symmetry, $mathcal{PT}$. It was shown that if $mathcal{PT}$ is unbroken, energies were, in fact, positive, and unitarity was satisifed. Since quantum mechanics is quantum field theory in 1 dimension, time, it was natural to extend this idea to higher-dimensional field theory, and in fact an apparently viable version of $mathcal{PT}$-invariant quantum electrodynamics was proposed. However, it has proved difficult to establish that the unitarity of the scattering matrix, for example, the Kallen spectral representation for the photon propagator, can be maintained in this theory. This has led to questions of whether, in fact, even quantum mechanical systems are consistent with probability conservation when Greens functions are examined, since the latter have to possess physical requirements of analyticity. The status of $mathcal{PT}$QED will be reviewed in this report, as well as the general issue of unitarity.
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Suppose that a system is known to be in one of two quantum states, $|psi_1 > $ or $|psi_2 >$. If these states are not orthogonal, then in conventional quantum mechanics it is impossible with one measurement to determine with certainty which state the system is in. However, because a non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonian determines the inner product that is appropriate for the Hilbert space of physical states, it is always possible to choose this inner product so that the two states $|psi_1 > $ and $|psi_2 > $ are orthogonal. Thus, quantum state discrimination can, in principle, be achieved with a single measurement.
In this work we focus on the Carroll-Field-Jackiw (CFJ) modified electrodynamics in combination with a CPT-even Lorentz-violating contribution. We add a photon mass term to the Lagrange density and study the question whether this contribution can render the theory unitary. The analysis is based on the pole structure of the modified photon propagator as well as the validity of the optical theorem. We find, indeed, that the massive CFJ-type modification is unitary at tree-level. This result provides a further example for how a photon mass can mitigate malign behaviors.
Recently, much research has been carried out on Hamiltonians that are not Hermitian but are symmetric under space-time reflection, that is, Hamiltonians that exhibit PT symmetry. Investigations of the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem associated with such Hamiltonians have shown that in many cases the entire energy spectrum is real and positive and that the eigenfunctions form an orthogonal and complete basis. Furthermore, the quantum theories determined by such Hamiltonians have been shown to be consistent in the sense that the probabilities are positive and the dynamical trajectories are unitary. However, the geometrical structures that underlie quantum theories formulated in terms of such Hamiltonians have hitherto not been fully understood. This paper studies in detail the geometric properties of a Hilbert space endowed with a parity structure and analyses the characteristics of a PT-symmetric Hamiltonian and its eigenstates. A canonical relationship between a PT-symmetric operator and a Hermitian operator is established. It is shown that the quadratic form corresponding to the parity operator, in particular, gives rise to a natural partition of the Hilbert space into two halves corresponding to states having positive and negative PT norm. The indefiniteness of the norm can be circumvented by introducing a symmetry operator C that defines a positive definite inner product by means of a CPT conjugation operation.
A novel soliton-like solution in quantum electrodynamics is obtained via a self-consistent field method. By writing the Hamiltonian of quantum electrodynamics in the Coulomb gauge, we separate out a classical component in the density operator of the electron-positron field. Then, by modeling the state vector in analogy with the theory of superconductivity, we minimize the functional for the energy of the system. This results in the equations of the self-consistent field, where the solutions are associated with the collective excitation of the electron-positron field---the soliton-like solution. In addition, the canonical transformation of the variables allowed us to separate out the total momentum of the system and, consequently, to find the relativistic energy dispersion relation for the moving soliton.
In this work, we show that a universal quantum work relation for a quantum system driven arbitrarily far from equilibrium extend to $mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum system with unbroken $mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, which is a consequence of microscopic reversibility. The quantum Jarzynski equality, linear response theory and Onsager reciprocal relations for the $mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum system are recovered as special cases of the universal quantum work relation in $mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum system. In the regime of broken $mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, the universal quantum work relation does not hold as the norm is not preserved during the dynamics.
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