Simplify ladder operators




On Sun, 7 Mar 2010, Richard Fateman wrote:

< I haven't been following this thread in any detail, but the programming of
< bra/ket simplification has been,
< I think, a fairly common topic. I think I even wrote some programs to do this
< with Bruce Char over 30 years ago.
< 
< In any case, my thought now is that local transformation rules is NOT the way
< to do this, except
< as a last resort.  Instead, is there a canonical representation that all these
< expressions can
< be forced into?  One which will necessarily be simplified (with respect to
< that canonical form)?
 
Richard, I'm intrigued. Could you elaborate on this?
In particular, I am not familiar with techniques to
force the expressions into a canonical form other than
via simplification rules. Of course,
with most Lie algebras, like the Heisenberg algebra,
there is a prefered (if not canonical) representation.

Leo

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