Non-Hermitian interaction representation and its use in relativistic quantum mechanics

Abstract

In quantum mechanics the unitary evolution is most often described in a pre-selected Hilbert space ${\cal H}^{(textbook)}$ in which, due to the Stone theorem, the Schr\"odinger-picture Hamiltonian is self-adjoint, $\mathfrak{h}=\mathfrak{h}^\dagger$. Via a unitary transformation one can also translate the theory (i.e., usually, differential evolution equations) to the Heisenberg or interaction picture. Once we decide to treat ${\cal H}^{(textbook)}$ as a "Dyson's" non-unitary one-to-one image of a new, auxiliary Hilbert space ${\cal H}^{(friendlier)}$, the corresponding (i.e., presumably, user-friendlier) avatar $H= \Omega^{-1}\mathfrak{h}\Omega$ of the Schr\"odinger-picture Hamiltonian keeps describing the same physics but becomes non-self-adjoint in ${\cal H}^{(friendlier)}$. Of course, a completion of the theory requires a Dyson-proposed reinstallation of the Stone theorem in ${\cal H}^{(friendlier)}$. This is routinely achieved by an ad hoc redefinition of the inner product, i.e., formally, by a move to the third Hilbert representation space ${\cal H}^{(standard)}$. In some detail we show that in the non-stationary Dyson-inspired Heisenberg- and interaction-picture settings the resulting description of the unitary evolution becomes technically more complicated. As an illustration we describe an application to the Klein-Gordon equation with a space- and time-dependent mass term.