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docs/src/conventions.md

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@@ -5,6 +5,104 @@ equation for rotating spherical harmonics.
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# Outline
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* Three-dimensional Euclidean space
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- Cartesian coordinates ``(x, y, z)`` => ℝ³
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- Cartesian basis vectors ``(𝐱, 𝐲, 𝐳,)``
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- Euclidean norm => Euclidean metric
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- Spherical coordinates
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- Specifically give transformation to/from ``(x, y, z)``
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- Derive metric in these coordinates from transformation
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- Integration / measure on two-sphere
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- Derive as restriction of full metric, in both coordinate systems
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* Four-dimensional Euclidean space
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- Eight-dimensional Clifford algebra over the tangent *vector space* ``Tℝ³``
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- Four-dimensional even sub-algebra => ℝ⁴
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- Coordinates ``(W, X, Y, Z)``
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- Basis vectors ``(𝟏, 𝐢, 𝐣, 𝐤)``, but we usually just omit ``𝟏``
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- Show a few essential formulas establishing the product and its conventions
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- Unit quaternions are isomorphic to ``\mathbf{Spin}(3) =
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\mathbf{SU}(2)``; double covers ``\mathbf{SO}(3)``
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- Be explicit about the mapping between vector in ℝ³ and quaternions
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- Show how a unit quaternion can be used to rotate a vector
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- Spherical coordinates (hyperspherical / Euler)
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- Specifically give transformation to/from ``(W, X, Y, Z)``
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- Derive metric in these coordinates from transformation
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- Express unit quaternion in Euler angles
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- Integration / measure / Haar measure on three-sphere
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- Derive as restriction of full metric, in both coordinate systems
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* Angular momentum operators / functional analysis
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- Express angular momentum operators in terms of quaternion components
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- Express angular momentum operators in terms of Euler angles
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- Show for both the three- and two-spheres
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- Show how they act on functions on the three-sphere
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* Representation theory / harmonic analysis
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- Representations show up in Fourier analysis on groups
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- Peter-Weyl theorem
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- Generalizes Fourier analysis to compact groups
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- A basis of functions on the group is given by matrix elements of
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group representations
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- Representation theory of ``\mathbf{Spin}(3)``
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- Show how the Lie algebra is represented by the angular-momentum operators
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- Show how the Lie group is represented by the Wigner D-matrices
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- Demonstrate that ``\mathfrak{D}`` is a representation
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- Demonstrate its behavior under left and right rotation
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- Demonstrate orthonormality
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- Representation theory of ``\mathbf{SO}(3)``
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- There are several places in [Folland](@cite Folland_2016) (e.g.,
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above corollary 5.48) where he mentions that representations of
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a quotient group are just representations that are trivial
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(evidently meaning mapping everything to the identity matrix) on
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the factor. I can't find anywhere that he explains this
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explicitly, but it seems easy enough to show. He might do it
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using characters.
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- For ``\mathbf{Spin}(3)`` and ``\mathbf{SO}(3)``, the factor
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group is just ``\{1, -1\}``. Presumably, every representation
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acting on ``1`` will give the identity matrix, so that's
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trivial. So we just need a criterion for when a representation
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is trivial on ``-1``. Noting that ``\exp(\pi \vec{v}) = -1``
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for any ``\vec{v}``, I think we can show that this requires
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``m \in \mathbb{Z}``.
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- Basically, the point is that the representations of
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``\mathbf{SO}(3)`` are just the integer representations of
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``\mathbf{Spin}(3)``.
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- Restrict to homogeneous space (S³ -> S²)
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- The circle group is a closed (normal?) subgroup of
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``\mathbf{Spin}(3)``, which we might implement as initial
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multiplication about a particular axis.
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- In Eq. (2.47) [Folland (2016)](@cite Folland_2016) defines a
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functional taking a function on the group to a function on the
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homogeneous space by integrating over the factor (the circle
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group). This gives you the spherical harmonics, but *not* the
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spin-weighted spherical harmonics — because the spin-weighted
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spherical harmonics cannot be defined on the 2-sphere.
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- Spin weight comes from Fourier analysis on the subgroup.
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- Representation matrices transfer to the homogeneous space, with
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sparsity patterns
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---
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Spherical harmonics as functions on homogeneous space.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnFvOa9v7do gives some nice
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discussion; maybe the paper has better references.
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Theorem 2.16 of [Hanson-Yakovlev](@cite HansonYakovlev_2002) says that
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an orthonormal basis of a product of ``L^2`` spaces is given by the
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product of the orthonormal bases of the individual spaces.
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Furthermore, on page 354, they point out that ``\{(1/\sqrt{2\pi})
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e^{im\phi}\}`` is an orthonormal basis of ``L^2(0,2\pi)``, while the
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set ``\{1/c_{n,m} P_n^m(\cos\theta)`` is an orthonormal basis of
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``L^2(0, \pi)`` in the ``\theta`` coordinate. Therefore, the product
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of these two sets is an orthonormal basis of the product space
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``L^2\left((0,2\pi) \times (0, \pi)\right)``, which forms a coordinate
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space for ``S^2``. I would probably modify this to point out that
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``(0,2\pi)`` is really ``S^1``, and then we could extend it to point
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out that you can throw on another factor of ``S^1`` to cover ``S^3``,
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which happens to give us the Wigner D-matrices.
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We first define the rotor that takes ``(\hat{x}, \hat{y}, \hat{z})``
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onto ``(\hat{\theta}, \hat{\phi}, \hat{r})``. Then, we can invert
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that, so that given a rotor that specifies such a rotation exactly, we
@@ -169,6 +267,24 @@ Condon-Shortley phase convention.***
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## Angular-momentum operators
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* First, a couple points about ``-i\hbar``:
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- The finite transformations look like ``\exp[-i \theta L_j]``, but
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the factor of ``i`` introduced here just cancels the one in the
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``L_j``, and the sign is just chosen to make the result consistent
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with our notion of active or passive transformations.
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- Any factors of ``\hbar`` are included *purely* for the sake of
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convenience.
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- The factor ``i`` comes from plain functional analysis: We need a
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self-adjoint operator, and ``\partial_x`` by itself is
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anti-self-adjoint (as can be verified by evaluating on ``\langle
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x' | x \rangle = \delta(x-x')``, which switches sign based on
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which is being differentiated). We want self-adjoint operators so
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that we get purely real eigenvalues. [Van Neerven](@cite
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vanNeerven_2022) cites this in a more rigorous context in his
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Example (10.40) (page 331), with more explanation around Eq.
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(15.17) (page 592). The "self-adjoint ``\iff`` real eigenvalues"
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condition is item (1) in his Corollary 9.18.
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Wigner's $𝔇$ matrices are defined as matrix elements of a rotation in
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the basis of spherical harmonics. That rotation is defined in terms
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of the generators of rotation, which are expressed in terms of the

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