Mixed states for reference frames transformations

arXiv:2507.05758 · quant-ph, hep-th, math-ph, math.GR, math.MP · Submitted 2025-07-08 · Read on arXiv

quant-ph, hep-th, math-ph, math.GR, math.MP

Submitted: 2025-07-08

Updated: 2026-03-22

Comments: 22 pages, two figures. Sections on Galilei transformations and thermal states rewritten and merged. Other minor corrections

DOI: 10.1142/S0219887826502014

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We discuss the concept of transformations among reference frames (classical or quantum).

Abstract

We discuss the concept of transformations among reference frames (classical or quantum). Usually transformations among classical reference frames have sharply defined parameters; geometrically they can be considered as pure states in the parameters' space, and they form a group. It is however possible that the distributions in the parameters' space are mixed states; such states form a semigroup. Similarly, transformations among quantum reference frames can be either pure or mixed. This gives rise to interesting consequences: the state of a system can be pure with respect to a reference frame and mixed with respect to another; we concretely discuss this in the framework of Galilei transformations in 1+1 dimensions. In particular, if the state of a reference frame with respect to another frame is thermal at some temperature, a quantum particle in the pure (improper) rest state with respect to the first frame will appear in a thermal state with a related nonzero temperature with respect to the other. This can also be discussed in relation to the time/energy uncertainty relation.

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