Matrix mechanics of the relativistic point particle and string in Clifford space
Abstract
We resolve the space-time canonical variables of the relativistic point particle into inner products of Weyl spinors with components in a Clifford algebra and find that these spinors themselves form a canonical system with generalized Poisson brackets. For N particles, the inner products of their Clifford coordinates and momenta form two NxN Hermitian matrices X and P which transform under a U(N) symmetry in the generating algebra. This is used as a starting point for defining matrix mechanics for a point particle in Clifford space. Next we consider the string. The Lorentz metric induces a metric and a scalar on the world sheet which we represent by a Jackiw-Teitelboim term in the action. The string is described by a polymomenta canonical system and we find the wave solutions to the classical equations of motion for a flat world sheet. Finally, we show that the SL(2.C) charge and space-time momentum of the quantized string satisfy the Poincare algebra.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- June 2014
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1406.2830
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1406.2830
- Bibcode:
- 2014arXiv1406.2830B
- Keywords:
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- Mathematical Physics
- E-Print:
- v2: improvement of section 7, results unchanged. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1304.4024