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.
Read more about this topic: Heisenberg Picture
Famous quotes containing the words mathematical and/or details:
“As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.”
—Blaise Pascal (16231662)
“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)