Heisenberg picture Heisenberg picture In physics, the Heisenberg picture (also called the Heisenberg representation) is a formulation (largely due to Werner Heisenberg in 1925) of quantum mechanics in which the operators (observables and others) incorporate a dependency on time, but the state vectors are time-independent, an arbitrary fixed basis rigidly underlying the theory. It stands in contrast to the Schrödinger picture in which the operators are constant, instead, and the states evolve in time. The two pictures only differ by a basis change with respect to time-dependency, which corresponds to the difference between active and passive transformations. The Heisenberg picture is the
Heisenberg group operators on formula_103: for formula_109. So too do the multiplications by characters: for formula_111. These operators do not commute, and instead satisfy multiplication by a fixed unit modulus complex number. So the Heisenberg group formula_113 associated with "K" is a type of central extension of formula_114, via an exact sequence of groups: More general Heisenberg groups are described by 2-cocyles in the cohomology group formula_116. The existence of a duality between formula_117 and formula_101 gives rise to a canonical cocycle, but there are generally others. The Heisenberg group acts irreducibly on formula_103. Indeed, the continuous characters separate points so any