Supersymmetry of the quantum rotor

Abstract

The quantum rotor is shown to be supersymmetric. The supercharge $Q$, whose square equals the Hamiltonian, is constructed with reflection operators. The conserved quantities that commute with $Q$ form the algebra $so(3)_{-1}$, an anticommutator version of $so(3)$. The subduced representation of $so(3)_{-1}$ on the space of spherical harmonics with total angular momentum $j$ is constructed and found to decompose into two irreducible components. Two natural bases for the irreducible representation spaces of $so(3)_{-1}$ are introduced and their overlap coefficients prove expressible in terms of orthogonal polynomials of a discrete variable called anti-Krawtchouk polynomials.