Quantum Maupertuis Principle

Abstract

According to the Maupertuis principle, the movement of a classical particle in an external potential $V(x)$ can be understood as the movement in a curved space with the metric $g_{\mu\nu}(x)=2M[V(x)-E]\delta_{\mu\nu}$. We show that the principle can be extended to the quantum regime, i.e., we show that the wave function of the particle follows a Schr\"odinger equation in curved space where the kinetic operator is formed with the {\it Weyl--invariant Laplace-Beltrami} operator. As an application, we use DeWitt's recursive semiclassical expansion of the time-evolution operator in curved space to calculate the semiclassical expansion of the particle density $\rho(x;E)=<x|\delta(E-\hat H)|x>$.