Phonons and the Particular Change of Coordinates in Quantum Mechanics

S. FORTIN; H. ACCORINTI; J. A. JAIMES ARRIAGA

Santiago

Conferencia; First Chilean Conference on the Philosophy of Physics; 2018

Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso

The Hamiltonian of composite quantum systems consists of the individual Hamiltonians of the components plus the interactions between them. For different reasons, it is often necessary to make a change of coordinates that modifies the internal structure of the total Hamiltonian. In some cases the re-structured Hamiltonian can be interpreted as the Hamiltonian of certain particles that did not originally exist, in this case we call it quasiparticles. In this work we analyze the ontological status of a special type of quasiparticle: the phonon. We will doubt the emergent character of these entities and we will study the possibility of conceiving the ontological status of the phonons from a pluralist perspective.