Heisenberg group Heisenberg group In mathematics, the Heisenberg group formula_1, named after Werner Heisenberg, is the group of 3×3 upper triangular matrices of the form under the operation of matrix multiplication. Elements "a, b" and "c" can be taken from any commutative ring with identity, often taken to be the ring of real numbers (resulting in the "continuous Heisenberg group") or the ring of integers (resulting in the "discrete Heisenberg group"). The continuous Heisenberg group arises in the description of one-dimensional quantum mechanical systems, especially in the context of the Stone–von Neumann theorem. More generally, one can consider Heisenberg groups associated to
Heisenberg group bracket. This Lie algebra is a one-dimensional central extension of the commutative Lie algebra formula_57, isomorphic to the Lie algebra of the Heisenberg group. The general abstraction of a Heisenberg group is constructed from any symplectic vector space. For example, let ("V",ω) be a finite-dimensional real symplectic vector space (so ω is a nondegenerate skew symmetric bilinear form on "V"). The Heisenberg group H("V") on ("V",ω) (or simply "V" for brevity) is the set "V"×R endowed with the group law The Heisenberg group is a central extension of the additive group "V". Thus there is an exact sequence Any symplectic