An Essay on the Completion of Quantum Theory. II: Unitary Time Evolution

Abstract

In this second part of the `essay on the completion of quantum theory' we define the {\em unitary setting of completed quantum mechanics}, by adding as intrinsic data to those from Part I (arXiv:1711.08643) the choice of a north pole N and south pole S in the geometric space. Then we explain that, in the unitary setting, a complete observable corresponds to a right (or left) invariant vector field (Hamiltonian field) on the geometric space, and {\em unitary time evolution} is the flow of such a vector field. This interpretation is in fact nothing but the Lie group-Lie group algebra correspondence, for a geometric space that can be interpreted as the Cayley transform of the usual, Hermitian operator space. In order to clarify the geometric nature of this setting, we realize the Cayley transform as a member of a natural octahedral group that can be associated to any triple of pairwise transversal elements.