The ten-fold way of symmetries in quantum mechanics. An approach using coupled spin operators

Project description

About 50 years ago Wigner and Dyson proposed a three-fold symmetry classification for quantum mechanical systems -- these symmetry classes consisted of time-reversal invariant systems with integer spin which can be described by real symmetric matrices, time-reversal invariant systems with half-integer spin which can be described by real quaternion matrices, and systems without any time-reversal symmetry which are described by complex hermitian matrices. These three symmetry classes had their immediate application in the three classical Gaussian ensembles of random-matrix theory: the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble GOE, the Gaussian symplectic ensemble GSE, and the Gaussian unitary ensemble GUE. In the 1990's this classification was extended by adding charge conjugation symmetries -- symmetries which relate the positive and negative part of a spectrum and which are described by anti-commutators.

The classification was completed by Altland and Zirnbauer who have shown that there are essentially only seven further symmetry classes on top of the Wigner-Dyson classes leading to what is now known as the 'ten-fold way'. All symmetry classes have applications in physics. The new symmetry classes are realised by various cases of the Dirac equation and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. For a long time people have thought of these symmetries only in the context of many-body physics or quantum field theory. However there are simple quantum mechanical realisations of all ten symmetry classes which in terms of two coupled spins where the classification follows from properties of the coupling parameters and of the irreducible SU(2) representations on which the spin operators act. This project will explore these simple representations in the quantum mechanical and semiclassical context. One goal will be to understand the implications of the quantum mechanical symmetries for the corresponding classical dynamics which appears in the semiclassical limit of large spins.