A Spectrum of the Liouville Operator

  • Thread starter Thread starter andresB
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Operator Spectrum
Click For Summary
The discussion centers on the Liouville differential operator defined using Poisson brackets in classical systems with Hamiltonians. It highlights that while the spectrum of this operator is easily computed for integrable systems, challenges arise for chaotic systems. Participants seek references for understanding the behavior of the Liouville operator in chaotic contexts, noting a lack of relevant literature beyond quantum mechanics. The conversation also touches on the Koopman-von Neumann mechanics, clarifying that the imaginary unit is necessary for the operator's Hermitian property. One contributor reveals authorship of a referenced paper that may provide further insights.
andresB
Messages
625
Reaction score
374
TL;DR
I would like some references that study the spectrum of the Liouville operator in the general case.
Context: Consider a classical system with Hamiltonian ##H##. The Liouville differential operator can be defined using the Poisson brackets as $$L=-i\left \{ ,H \right \}.$$
##L## is Hermitian in the Hilbert space of square integrable wavefunctions over phase space. The spectrum of ##L## is easy to compute for all systems that are integrable in the Arnold-Liouville sense. What about the chaotic systems? is there any good reference for this? Google is only giving me papers for the Liouville- von Neumann operator of QM.
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
vanhees71 said:
Are you working within Koopman-von-Neumann mechanics? Otherwise I don't understand your notation. Maybe this paper helps:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.02955
https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac8f75

Yes, the imaginary i is to make the operator hermitian in the KvN mechanics.

On the other hand, I have to mention that I wrote that paper.
 
Thread 'The rocket equation, one more time'
I already posted a similar thread a while ago, but this time I want to focus exclusively on one single point that is still not clear to me. I just came across this problem again in Modern Classical Mechanics by Helliwell and Sahakian. Their setup is exactly identical to the one that Taylor uses in Classical Mechanics: a rocket has mass m and velocity v at time t. At time ##t+\Delta t## it has (according to the textbooks) velocity ##v + \Delta v## and mass ##m+\Delta m##. Why not ##m -...

Similar threads

  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
1K
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
1K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K