✎ Phase Space [The Physics Travel Guide]

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====== Phase Space ======

<tabbox Intuitive> 
{{ :basic_tools:phasespace.png?nolink&350|}}
A phase space is a mathematical tool that allows to grasp important aspects of complicated systems.

Each point of the phase space represents one specific configuration a given system can be in.

The state of a system is recorded in a phase space point through all the location and all the momenta the objects in the system have at a given point in time.

The time evolution of a system can then be represented as a path in phase space. 
  
<tabbox Concrete> 
Each point of the phase space corresponds to one particular state of the system.

$\{q_i \}$ defines a point in n-dimensional
[[basic_tools:configuration_space|configuration space]] $C$. Time evolution is a path in $C$. However, the complete __state__ of the system
is defined by $\{q_i \}$ and $\{p_i \}$. Only with this information, we are able to determine
the state at all times in the future. The pair $\{q_i, p_i \}$ defines a point in a $2n$-dimensional
space we call phase space.

Since each point in phase space is sufficient
to determine the time
evolution of the system, paths in phase space can never cross. Otherwise, the time-evolution would not be unique.

It is conventional to say that the time evolution
is governed by a flow in phase space.

Try to imagine a
'space' of a large number of dimensions, one dimension for each of the 
coordinates $x_1, x_2,\ldots$, $p_1, p_2,\ldots$ (Mathematical spaces often have many;
more than three dimensions.) This space is called phase space (see Fig. 5.10).
For n unconstrained particles, this be a space of 6n dimensions (three, 
position coordinates and three momentum coordinates for each particle). The
reader may well worry that even for a single particle this is already twice as
many dimensions as she or he would normally be used to visualizing! The
secret is not to be put off by this. Whereas six dimensions are, indeed, more
dimensions than can be readily pictured, it would actually not be of much 
to us if we were in fact able to picture it. For just a room full of
molecules, the number of phase-space dimensions might be something like

$$ 100000000000000000000000000 . $$

There is no much hope in trying to obtain an accurate visualization of a space that big! Thus, the trick is not even to try - even in the case of the phase space of a single particle. Just think of some vague kind of three-dimensional (or even just two-dimensional) region. Have another look at Fig. 5. 10. That will do.

{{ :basic_notions:phasespacepenroseemprerornewmind.png?nolink&600 |}}

<cite>page 174ff in "The Emperors new Mind" by R. Penrose</cite></blockquote>
<tabbox Abstract>

The space of states in classical mechanics is modeled as a manifold $M$ equipped with a symplectic structure: $(M,ω)$. This manifold is what we usually call phase space. The phase space is a symplectic manifold which simply means that is a manifold equipped with a symplectic structure. A symplectic structure is a distinguished 2-form $(\omega)$.

Such a 2-form is an object that eats two vector fields on our manifold and returns another function on the manifold. Functions on the manifold are smooth maps $f \ : \ M \longarrow R$. These functions are what we call “the observables of our classical system”. So in words, this means that the observables of our classical system map each state to a real number.

One of the most important function on our phase space manifold is the Hamiltonian function. This function represents the energy of the system and describes the time-evolution of phase space points.

<blockquote>
[[frameworks:hamiltonian_formalism|Hamiltonian Mechanics]] is geometry in phase space. [...]

<cite>Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics  [[https://books.google.de/books?id=5OQlBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA160&ots=u7Qs-TMaNb&dq=%22Hamiltonian%20Mechanics%20is%20geometry%20in%20phase%20space.%22&hl=de&pg=PA160#v=onepage&q&f=false|Vladimir Arnold]]</cite>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>While it is true that the primary perception we,
human beings, have of our world privileges positions, and their evolution
with time, this does not mean that we have to use only, mathematics in
[[basic_tools:configuration_space|configuration space]]. As Basil Hiley puts it “...since thoughts are not located
in space-time, mathematics is not necessarily about material things in space-
time”. Hiley is right: it is precisely the liberating power — I am tempted
to say the grace — of mathematics that allows us to break the chains that
tie us to one particular view of our environment."  <cite>The Principles of Newtonian and Quantum Mechanics: by Gosson</cite></blockquote>

<tabbox History> 
See: The tangled tale of
phase space
by 
David D. Nolte https://works.bepress.com/ddnolte/2/download/
</tabbox>

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