Time-dependent Hilbert spaces, geometric phases, and general covariance in quantum mechanics

Abstract

We investigate consequences of allowing the Hilbert space of a quantum system to have a time-dependent metric. For a given possibly nonstationary quantum system, we show that the requirement of having a unitary Schrodinger time-evolution identifies the metric with a positive-definite (Ermakov-Lewis) dynamical invariant of the system. Therefore the geometric phases are determined by the metric. We construct a unitary map relating a given time-independent Hilbert space to the time-dependent Hilbert space defined by a positive-definite dynamical invariant. This map defines a transformation that changes the metric of the Hilbert space but leaves the Hamiltonian of the system invariant. We propose to identify this phenomenon with a quantum mechanical analogue of the principle of general covariance of general relativity. We comment on the implications of this principle for geometrically equivalent quantum systems and investigate the underlying symmetry group.