Bill Faris: Spin in stochastic mechanics

When

3 – 4 p.m., Sept. 25, 2024

Stochastic mechanics provides a natural diffusion process tracking the probabilities given by quantum mechanics. The position part of the process is random motion in Euclidean space. The idea is to incorporate spin by having another part of the process that takes place in the group SU(2). Since SU(2) covers the rotation group S0(3), this may also be interpreted as random rotation of a rigid body. It turns out that spin in stochastic mechanics is a continuous random variable with only one component having discrete values.

The talk will begin with the Schrodinger equation on a general Riemannian manifold and then specialize the manifold to R3 x SU(2). 

 

(Math 402; zoom: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/83367539155)