Probability Distributions and Coherent States of B r , C r and D r Algebras

A new approach to probability theory based on quantum mechanical and Lie algebraic ideas is proposed and developed. The underlying fact is the observation that the coherent states of the Heisenberg-Weyl, su(2), su(r+1), su(1, 1) and su(r, 1) algebras in certain symmetric (bosonic) representations give the “probability amplitudes” (or the “square roots”) of the well-known Poisson, binomial, multinomial, negative binomial and negative multinomial distributions in probability theory. New probability distributions are derived based on coherent states of the classical algebras Br, Cr and Dr in symmetric representations. These new probability distributions are simple generalisation of the multinomial distributions with some added new features reflecting the quantum and Lie algebraic construction. As byproducts, simple proofs and interpretation of addition theorems of Hermite polynomials are obtained from the ‘coordinate’ representation of the (negative) multinomial states. In other words, these addition theorems are higher rank counterparts of the well-known generating function of Hermite polynomials, which is essentially the ‘coordinate’ representation of the ordinary (Heisenberg-Weyl) coherent state. On leave of absence from Institute of Theoretical Physics, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, P.R.China.