Wigner's theorem on Grassmann spaces

Abstract

Wigner's celebrated theorem, which is particularly important in the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, states that every bijective transformation on the set of all rank-one projections of a complex Hilbert space which preserves the transition probability is induced by a unitary or an antiunitary operator. This vital theorem has been generalised in various ways by several scientists. In 2001, Moln\'ar provided a natural generalisation, namely, he provided a characterisation of (not necessarily bijective) maps which act on the Grassmann space of all rank-$n$ projections and leave the system of Jordan principal angles invariant (see [20] and [17]). In this paper we give a very natural joint generalisation of Wigner's and Moln\'ar's theorems, namely, we prove a characterisation of all (not necessarily bijective) transformations on the Grassmann space which fix the quantity $\mathrm{tr} PQ$ (i.e.~the sum of the squares of cosines of principal angles) for every pair of rank-$n$ projections $P$ and $Q$.