Table of contents

This is a call for contributions to a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical dedicated to the subject of Pseudo Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics as featured in the conference '6th International Workshop on Pseudo Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics', City University London, UK, July 16–18 2007 (http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~fring/PT/). Invited speakers at that meeting as well as other researchers working in the field are invited to submit a research paper to this issue.

The Editorial Board has invited Andreas Fring, Hugh F Jones and Miloslav Znojil to serve as Guest Editors for the special issue. Their criteria for acceptance of contributions are as follows:

•The subject of the paper should relate to the subject of the workshop (see list of topics in the website of the conference http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~fring/PT/).

•Contributions will be refereed and processed according to the usual procedure of the journal.

•Conference papers may be based on already published work but should either contain significant additional new results and/or insights or give a survey of the present state of the art, a critical assessment of the present understanding of a topic, and a discussion of open problems.

•Papers submitted by non-participants should be original and contain substantial new results.

The guidelines for the preparation of contributions are the following:

•The DEADLINE for submission of contributions is 16 November 2007. This deadline will allow the special issue to appear in June 2008.

•There is a nominal page limit of 16 printed pages (approximately 9600 words) per contribution. For papers exceeding this limit, the Guest Editors reserve the right to request a reduction in length. Further advice on publishing your work in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical may be found at www.iop.org/Journals/jphysa.

•Contributions to the special issue should, if possible, be submitted electronically by web upload at www.iop.org/Journals/jphysa or by e-mail to jphysa@iop.org, quoting 'JPhysA Special Issue—PHHQP07'. Submissions should ideally be in standard LaTeX form. Please see the website for further information on electronic submissions.

•Authors unable to submit electronically may send hard copy contributions to: Publishing Administrators, Journal of Physics A, Institute of Physics Publishing, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK, enclosing the electronic code on CD if available and quoting 'JPhysA Special Issue—PHHQP07'. All contributions should be accompanied by a read-me file or covering letter giving the postal and e-mail addresses for correspondence. The Publishing Office should be notified of any subsequent change of address.

•This special issue will be published in the paper and online version of the journal. Each participant at the workshop and the corresponding author of each contribution will receive a complimentary copy of the issue.

An analytic proof of the necessity of the Borland–Dennis conditions for 3-representability of a one-particle density matrix with rank 6 is given. This may shed some light on Klyachko's recent use of Schubert calculus to find general conditions for N-representability.

The central limit theorem (CLT) can be ranked among the most important ones in probability theory and statistics and plays an essential role in several basic and applied disciplines, notably in statistical thermodynamics. We show that there exists a natural extension of the CLT from exponentials to so-called deformed exponentials (also denoted as q-Gaussians). Our proposal applies exactly in the usual conditions in which the classical CLT is used.

Closed-form analytical expressions and asymptotic results are obtained for the density distribution in Fourier space of harmonically trapped fermion gases at zero and nonzero temperatures in d dimensions. The result is applied to weakly interacting Fermi gases and to the elastic scattering from atomic nuclei. The Fourier transform of the momentum density for a d-dimensional harmonic confinement is also found.

In this paper, the continuous time random walk on the circle is studied. We derive the corresponding generalized master equation and discuss the effects of topology, especially important when Lévy flights are allowed. Then, we work out the fluid limit equation, formulated in terms of the periodic version of the fractional Riemann–Liouville operators, for which we provide explicit expressions. Finally, we compute the propagator in some simple cases. The analysis presented herein should be relevant when investigating anomalous transport phenomena in systems with periodic dimensions.

A relation between the correlation entropy and the correlation functions for the general spin-1/2 systems is obtained. It is shown that the correlation entropy catches some characters of correlation behavior and can be used to quantify the quantum and finite-temperature phase transitions, including the infinite order or topological ones. As an example, the Kosterlitz–Thouless transition in the quantum two-dimensional XY model is investigated. The critical temperature and the critical exponents are determined from the finite-size scaling analysis of the correlation entropy.

We compute the three-point correlation function for the eigenvalues of the Laplacian on quantum star graphs in the limit where the number of edges tends to infinity. This extends a work by Berkolaiko and Keating, where they get the two-point correlation function and show that it follows neither Poisson, nor random matrix statistics. It makes use of the trace formula and combinatorial analysis.

Kontsevich's work on Airy matrix integrals has led to explicit results for the intersection numbers of the moduli space of curves. In a subsequent work Okounkov rederived these results from the edge behavior of a Gaussian matrix integral. In our work we consider the correlation functions of vertices in a Gaussian random matrix theory, with an external matrix source. We deal with operator products of the form , in a expansion. For large values of the powers k_i, in an appropriate scaling limit relating large k's to large N, universal scaling functions are derived. Furthermore, we show that the replica method applied to characteristic polynomials of the random matrices, together with a duality exchanging N and the number of points, provides a new way to recover Kontsevich's results on these intersection numbers.

We express the averages of products of characteristic polynomials for random matrix ensembles associated with compact symmetric spaces in terms of Jack polynomials or Heckman and Opdam's Jacobi polynomials depending on the root system of the space. We also give explicit expressions for the asymptotic behavior of these averages in the limit as the matrix size goes to infinity.

Rigorous justification of the Hubbard–Stratonovich transformation for the Pruisken–Schäfer type of parametrizations of real hyperbolic O(m, n)-invariant domains remains a challenging problem. We show that a naive choice of the volume element invalidates the transformation and put forward a conjecture about the correct form which ensures the desired structure. The conjecture is supported by a complete analytic solution of the problem for groups O(1, 1) and O(2, 1), and by a method combining analytical calculations with a simple numerical evaluation of a two-dimensional integral in the case of the group O(2, 2).

Based on a revised version of inverse scattering transform for the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger (DNLS) equation with vanishing boundary condition (VBC), the explicit N-soliton solution has been derived by some algebra techniques of some special matrices and determinants, especially the Binet–Cauchy formula. The one- and two-soliton solutions have been given as the illustration of the general formula of the N-soliton solution. Moreover, the asymptotic behaviors of the N-soliton solution have been discussed.

We argue that topological compactons (solitons with compact support) may be quite common objects if k-fields, i.e., fields with nonstandard kinetic term, are considered, by showing that even for models with well-behaved potentials the unusual kinetic part may lead to a power-like approach to the vacuum, which is a typical signal for the existence of compactons. The related approximate scaling symmetry as well as the existence of self-similar solutions are also discussed. As an example, we discuss domain walls in a potential Skyrme model with an additional quartic term, which is just the standard quadratic term to the power two. We show that in the critical case, when the quadratic term is neglected, we get the so-called quartic ϕ⁴ model, and the corresponding topological defect becomes a compacton. Similarly, the quartic sine-Gordon compacton is also derived. Finally, we establish the existence of topological half-compactons and study their properties.

The equation of the orbits (in the configuration space) and of the hodographs (in the 'momentum' plane) for the 'curved' Kepler and harmonic oscillator systems, living in a configuration space of any constant curvature and either signature type, are derived by purely algebraic means. This result extends to the 'curved' Kepler or harmonic oscillator for the classical Hamilton derivation of the orbits of the Euclidean Kepler problem through its hodographs. In both cases, the fundamental property allowing these derivations to work is the superintegrability of the 'curved' Kepler and harmonic oscillator, no matter whether the constant curvature of the configuration space is zero or not, or whether the configuration space metric is Riemannian or Lorentzian. In the 'curved' case the basic result does not refer to the 'velocity hodograph' but to the 'momentum hodograph'; both coincide in a Euclidean configuration space, but only the latter is unambiguously defined in all curved spaces.

The paper addresses the two-point correlations of electromagnetic waves in general random, bi-anisotropic media whose constitutive tensors are complex Hermitian, positive- or negative-definite matrices. A simplified version of the two-frequency Wigner distribution (2f-WD) for polarized waves is introduced and the closed form Wigner–Moyal equation is derived from the Maxwell equations. In the weak-disorder regime with an arbitrarily varying background the two-frequency radiative transfer (2f-RT) equations for the associated 2 × 2 coherence matrices are derived from the Wigner–Moyal equation by using the multiple-scale expansion. In birefringent media, the coherence matrix becomes a scalar and the 2f-RT equations take the scalar form due to the absence of depolarization. A paraxial approximation is developed for spatially anisotropic media. Examples of isotropic, chiral, uniaxial and gyrotropic media are discussed.

The symmetries of perturbed conformal field theories are analysed. We explain which generators of the chiral algebras of a bulk theory survive a perturbation by an exactly marginal bulk field. We also study the behaviour of D-branes under current–current bulk deformations. We find that the branes always continue to preserve as much symmetry as they possibly can, i.e. as much as is preserved in the bulk. We illustrate these findings with several examples, including permutation branes in WZW models and B-type D-branes in Gepner models.

We present explicit conjectures for the chiral fusion algebras of the logarithmic minimal models considering Virasoro representations with no enlarged or extended symmetry algebra. The generators of fusion are countably infinite in number but the ensuing fusion rules are quasi-rational in the sense that the fusion of a finite number of representations decomposes into a finite direct sum of representations. The fusion rules are commutative, associative and exhibit an sℓ(2) structure but require so-called Kac representations which are typically reducible yet indecomposable representations of rank 1. In particular, the identity of the fundamental fusion algebra p ≠ 1 is a reducible yet indecomposable Kac representation of rank 1. We make detailed comparisons of our fusion rules with the results of Gaberdiel and Kausch for p = 1 and with Eberle and Flohr for (p, p') = (2, 5) corresponding to the logarithmic Yang–Lee model. In the latter case, we confirm the appearance of indecomposable representations of rank 3. We also find that closure of a fundamental fusion algebra is achieved without the introduction of indecomposable representations of rank higher than 3. The conjectured fusion rules are supported, within our lattice approach, by extensive numerical studies of the associated integrable lattice models. Details of our lattice findings and numerical results will be presented elsewhere. The agreement of our fusion rules with the previous fusion rules lends considerable support for the identification of the logarithmic minimal models with the augmented (minimal) models defined algebraically.

We study a generic open quantum system where the coupling between the system and its environment is of an energy-preserving quantum nondemolition (QND) type. We obtain the general master equation for the evolution of such a system under the influence of a squeezed thermal bath of harmonic oscillators. From the master equation it can be seen explicitly that the process involves decoherence or dephasing without any dissipation of energy. We work out the decoherence-causing term in the high- and zero-temperature limits and check that they match with known results for the case of a thermal bath. The decay of the coherence is quantified as well by the dynamics of the linear entropy of the system under various environmental conditions. We make a comparison of the quantum statistical properties between QND and dissipative types of evolution using a two-level atomic system and a harmonic oscillator.

Unlike standard quantum mechanics, dynamical reduction models assign no particular a priori status to 'measurement processes', 'apparata' and 'observables', nor self-adjoint operators and positive-operator-valued measures enter the postulates defining these models. In this paper, we show why and how the Hilbert-space operator formalism, which standard quantum mechanics postulates, can be derived from the fundamental evolution equation of dynamical reduction models. Far from having any special ontological meaning, we show that within the dynamical reduction context the operator formalism is just a compact and convenient way to express the statistical properties of the outcomes of experiments.

Quantum random walks are shown to have non-intuitive dynamics which makes them an attractive area of study for devising quantum algorithms for long-standing open problems as well as those arising in the field of quantum computing. In the case of continuous-time quantum random walks, such peculiar dynamics can arise from simple evolution operators closely resembling the quantum free-wave propagator. We investigate the divergence of quantum walk dynamics from the free-wave evolution and show that, in order for continuous-time quantum walks to display their characteristic propagation, the state space must be discrete. This behavior rules out many continuous quantum systems as possible candidates for implementing continuous-time quantum random walks.

The entanglement content of high-dimensional random pure states is almost maximal; nevertheless, we show that, due to the complexity of such states, the detection of their entanglement using witness operators is rather difficult. We discuss the case of unknown random states, and the case of known random states for which we can optimize the entanglement witness. Moreover, we show that coarse graining, modelled by considering mixtures of m random states instead of pure ones, leads to a decay in the entanglement detection probability exponential with m. Our results also allow us to explain the emergence of classicality in coarse grained quantum chaotic dynamics.