Heisenberg Picture - Mathematical Details

Mathematical Details

In the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics the state vector, does not change with time, and an observable A satisfies

where H is the Hamiltonian and is the commutator of A and H. In some sense, the Heisenberg picture is more natural and fundamental than the Schrödinger picture, especially for relativistic theories. Lorentz invariance is manifest in the Heisenberg picture.

This approach has a similarity to classical physics: by replacing the commutator above by the Poisson bracket, the Heisenberg equation becomes an equation in Hamiltonian mechanics.

By the Stone-von Neumann theorem, the Heisenberg picture and the Schrödinger picture are unitarily equivalent.

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