Quantization of Damped Harmonic Oscillator, Thermal Field Theoris and q-Groups

We study the canonical quantization of the damped harmonic oscillator by resorting to the realization of the q-deformation of the Wheyl-Heisenberg algebra (q-WH) in terms of finite difference operators. We relate the damped oscillator hamiltonian to the q-WH algebra and to the squeezing generator of coherent states theory. We also show that the q-WH algebra is the natural candidate to study thermal field theory. The well known splitting, in the infinite volume limit, of the space of physical states into unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations is briefly commented upon in relation with the von Neumann theorem in quantum mechanics and with q-WH algebra. In recent years much attention has been devoted to quantum deformations[1],[2] of Lie algebras in view of their great physical interest. It has been recognized[3] that qdeformations appear whenever a discrete (space or time) length characterizes the system under study. In this report we present recent results which relate the hamiltonian of the damped harmonic oscillator (dho) to the q-WH algebra[4] and to the squeezing generator for coherent states (CS)[5]. We also discuss the relation of q-WH algebra with thermal field theory. In refs. 5-7 some aspects of dissipation in quantum field theory (QFT) have been studied by considering the canonical quantization of dho mz̈ + γż + κz = 0 (1) and it has been proven that the space of the physical states splits into unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations (ccr). Also, it has been realized that canonical quantization of the dho leads to SU(1, 1) time-dependent CS, which are well known in high energy physics as well as in quantum optics and thermal field theories. Moreover, dissipation phenomena and squeezed CS have been mathematically related, thus showing their common physical features[5]. The hamiltonian describing an (infinite) collection of damped harmonic oscillators, is[6] H = H0 +HI where H0 = ∑ κ h̄Ωκ ( AκAκ −B† κBκ) and HI = i ∑ κ h̄Γκ(A † κB † κ − AκBκ) (2) where κ labels the field degrees of freedom, e.g. spatial momentum. As usual in QFT, we work at finite volume V and perform at the end of the computations the limit V → ∞. As well known, in order to set up the canonical formalism for a dissipative system, the doubling of the degrees of freedom is required; thus the system A is ”doubled” by the system B in Eq. (2). The commutation relations are: [Aκ, A † λ ] = δκ,λ = [Bκ, B † λ ] ; [Aκ, B † λ ] = 0 = [Aκ, Bλ ] (3) The group structure is ⊗ κ SU(1, 1)κ. We have [H0,HI ] = 0 and the ground state is (formally, at finite volume V )