Some results on the dynamics and transition probabilities for non self-adjoint hamiltonians

Abstract

We discuss systematically several possible inequivalent ways to describe the dynamics and the transition probabilities of a quantum system when its hamiltonian is not self-adjoint. In order to simplify the treatment, we mainly restrict our analysis to finite dimensional Hilbert spaces. In particular, we propose some experiments which could discriminate between the various possibilities considered in the paper. An example taken from the literature is discussed in detail.