Lie Groups and Quantum Mechanics

Mathematical modelling should present a consistent description of physical phenomena. We illustrate an inconsistency with two Hamiltonians—the standard Hamiltonian and an example found in Goldstein—for the simple harmonic oscillator and its quantisation. Both descriptions are rich in Lie point symmetries and so one can calculate many Jacobi Last Multipliers and therefore Lagrangians. The Last Multiplier provides the route to the resolution of this problem and indicates that the great debate about the quantisation of dissipative systems should never have occurred.