Relativity of $\hbar$

Abstract

Looking for a quantum-mechanical implementation of duality, we formulate a relation between coherent states and complex-differentiable structures on classical phase space ${\cal C}$. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of locally-defined coherent states is the existence of an almost complex structure on ${\cal C}$. A necessary and sufficient condition for globally-defined coherent states is a complex structure on ${\cal C}$. The picture of quantum mechanics that emerges is conceptually close to that of a geometric manifold covered by local coordinate charts. Instead of the latter, quantum mechanics has local coherent states. A change of coordinates on ${\cal C}$ may or may not be holomorphic. Correspondingly, a transformation between quantum-mechanical states may or may not preserve coherence. Those that do not preserve coherence are duality transformations. A duality appears as the possibility of giving two or more, apparently different, descriptions of the same quantum-mechanical phenomenon. Coherence becomes a local property on classical phase space. Observers on ${\cal C}$ not connected by means of a holomorphic change of coordinates need not, and in general will not, agree on what is a semiclassical effect vs. what is a strong quantum effect