Coherent states: Theory and some applications

• DOI: 10.1103/revmodphys.62.867
• Publication Date: 2002-09-05T19:41:01Z
• Authors: Wei-Min Zhang; Da Hsuan Feng; Robert Gilmore
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

In this review, a general algorithm for constructing coherent states of dynamical groups for a given quantum physical system is presented. The result is that, for a given dynamical group, the coherent states are isomorphic to a coset space of group geometrical space. Thus the topological and algebraic structure of the coherent states as well as the associated dynamical system can be extensively discussed. In addition, a quantum-mechanical phase-space representation is constructed via the coherent-state theory. Several useful methods for employing the coherent states to study the physical phenomena of quantum-dynamic systems, such as the path integral, variational principle, classical limit, and thermodynamic limit of quantum mechanics, are described.