Conformal bridge between asymptotic freedom and confinement

Abstract

We construct a nonunitary transformation that relates a given "asymptotically free" conformal quantum mechanical system $H_f$ with its confined, harmonically trapped version $H_c$. In our construction, Jordan states corresponding to the zero eigenvalue of $H_f$, as well as its eigenstates and Gaussian packets are mapped into the eigenstates, coherent states and squeezed states of $H_c$, respectively. The transformation is an automorphism of the conformal $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{R})$ algebra of the nature of the fourth-order root of the identity transformation, to which a complex canonical transformation corresponds on the classical level being the fourth-order root of the spatial reflection. We investigate the one- and two-dimensional examples that reveal, in particular, a curious relation between the two-dimensional free particle and the Landau problem.

25 pages, comments and refs added, title slightly modified by the Editor of PRD