9-j symbol

In physics, Wigner's 9-j symbols were introduced by Eugene Paul Wigner in 1937. They are related to recoupling coefficients in quantum mechanics involving four angular momenta:

$\sqrt{(2 j_{3} + 1) (2 j_{6} + 1) (2 j_{7} + 1) (2 j_{8} + 1)} {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}}$ $= ⟨ ((j_{1} j_{2}) j_{3}, (j_{4} j_{5}) j_{6}) j_{9} | ((j_{1} j_{4}) j_{7}, (j_{2} j_{5}) j_{8}) j_{9} ⟩ .$

Recoupling of four angular momentum vectors

Coupling of two angular momenta $𝐣_{1}$ and $𝐣_{2}$ is the construction of simultaneous eigenfunctions of $𝐉^{2}$ and $J_{z}$ , where $𝐉 = 𝐣_{1} + 𝐣_{2}$ , as explained in the article on Clebsch–Gordan coefficients.

Coupling of three angular momenta can be done in several ways, as explained in the article on Racah W-coefficients. Using the notation and techniques of that article, total angular momentum states that arise from coupling the angular momentum vectors $𝐣_{1}$ , $𝐣_{2}$ , $𝐣_{4}$ , and $𝐣_{5}$ may be written as

| ((j_{1} j_{2}) j_{3}, (j_{4} j_{5}) j_{6}) j_{9} m_{9} ⟩ .

Alternatively, one may first couple $𝐣_{1}$ and $𝐣_{4}$ to $𝐣_{7}$ and $𝐣_{2}$ and $𝐣_{5}$ to $𝐣_{8}$ , before coupling $𝐣_{7}$ and $𝐣_{8}$ to $𝐣_{9}$ :

| ((j_{1} j_{4}) j_{7}, (j_{2} j_{5}) j_{8}) j_{9} m_{9} ⟩ .

Both sets of functions provide a complete, orthonormal basis for the space with dimension $(2 j_{1} + 1) (2 j_{2} + 1) (2 j_{4} + 1) (2 j_{5} + 1)$ spanned by

| j_{1} m_{1} ⟩ | j_{2} m_{2} ⟩ | j_{4} m_{4} ⟩ | j_{5} m_{5} ⟩, m_{1} = - j_{1}, \dots, j_{1}; m_{2} = - j_{2}, \dots, j_{2}; m_{4} = - j_{4}, \dots, j_{4}; m_{5} = - j_{5}, \dots, j_{5} .

Hence, the transformation between the two sets is unitary and the matrix elements of the transformation are given by the scalar products of the functions. As in the case of the Racah W-coefficients the matrix elements are independent of the total angular momentum projection quantum number ( $m_{9}$ ):

| ((j_{1} j_{4}) j_{7}, (j_{2} j_{5}) j_{8}) j_{9} m_{9} ⟩ = \sum_{j_{3}} \sum_{j_{6}} | ((j_{1} j_{2}) j_{3}, (j_{4} j_{5}) j_{6}) j_{9} m_{9} ⟩ ⟨ ((j_{1} j_{2}) j_{3}, (j_{4} j_{5}) j_{6}) j_{9} | ((j_{1} j_{4}) j_{7}, (j_{2} j_{5}) j_{8}) j_{9} ⟩ .

Symmetry relations

A 9-j symbol is invariant under reflection about either diagonal as well as even permutations of its rows or columns:

{\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{4} & j_{7} \\ j_{2} & j_{5} & j_{8} \\ j_{3} & j_{6} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = {\begin{matrix} j_{9} & j_{6} & j_{3} \\ j_{8} & j_{5} & j_{2} \\ j_{7} & j_{4} & j_{1} \end{matrix}} = {\begin{matrix} j_{7} & j_{4} & j_{1} \\ j_{9} & j_{6} & j_{3} \\ j_{8} & j_{5} & j_{2} \end{matrix}} .

An odd permutation of rows or columns yields a phase factor $(- 1)^{S}$ , where

S = \sum_{i = 1}^{9} j_{i} .

For example:

{\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = (- 1)^{S} {\begin{matrix} j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = (- 1)^{S} {\begin{matrix} j_{2} & j_{1} & j_{3} \\ j_{5} & j_{4} & j_{6} \\ j_{8} & j_{7} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} .

Reduction to 6j symbols

The 9-j symbols can be calculated as sums over triple-products of 6-j symbols where the summation extends over all Template:Math admitted by the triangle conditions in the factors:

{\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = \sum_{x} (- 1)^{2 x} (2 x + 1) {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{4} & j_{7} \\ j_{8} & j_{9} & x \end{matrix}} {\begin{matrix} j_{2} & j_{5} & j_{8} \\ j_{4} & x & j_{6} \end{matrix}} {\begin{matrix} j_{3} & j_{6} & j_{9} \\ x & j_{1} & j_{2} \end{matrix}}

.

Special case

When $j_{9} = 0$ the 9-j symbol is proportional to a 6-j symbol:

{\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & 0 \end{matrix}} = \frac{δ_{j_{3}, j_{6}} δ_{j_{7}, j_{8}}}{\sqrt{(2 j_{3} + 1) (2 j_{7} + 1)}} (- 1)^{j_{2} + j_{3} + j_{4} + j_{7}} {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{5} & j_{4} & j_{7} \end{matrix}} .

Orthogonality relation

The 9-j symbols satisfy this orthogonality relation:

\sum_{j_{7} j_{8}} (2 j_{7} + 1) (2 j_{8} + 1) {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & {j_{3}}^{'} \\ j_{4} & j_{5} & {j_{6}}^{'} \\ j_{7} & j_{8} & j_{9} \end{matrix}} = \frac{δ_{j_{3} {j_{3}}^{'}} δ_{j_{6} {j_{6}}^{'}} {\begin{matrix} j_{1} & j_{2} & j_{3} \end{matrix}} {\begin{matrix} j_{4} & j_{5} & j_{6} \end{matrix}} {\begin{matrix} j_{3} & j_{6} & j_{9} \end{matrix}}}{(2 j_{3} + 1) (2 j_{6} + 1)} .

The triangular delta Template:Math is equal to 1 when the triad (j₁, j₂, j₃) satisfies the triangle conditions, and zero otherwise.

3n-j symbols

The 6-j symbol is the first representative, Template:Math, of Template:Math-j symbols that are defined as sums of products of Template:Math of Wigner's 3-jm coefficients. The sums are over all combinations of Template:Math that the Template:Math-j coefficients admit, i.e., which lead to non-vanishing contributions.

If each 3-jm factor is represented by a vertex and each j by an edge, these Template:Math-j symbols can be mapped on certain 3-regular graphs with Template:Math edges and Template:Math nodes. The 6-j symbol is associated with the K₄ graph on 4 vertices, the 9-j symbol with the utility graph on 6 vertices (K_3,3), and the two distinct (non-isomorphic) 12-j symbols with the Q₃ and Wagner graphs on 8 vertices. Symmetry relations are generally representative of the automorphism group of these graphs.

References

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9-j symbol

Contents

Recoupling of four angular momentum vectors

Symmetry relations

Reduction to 6j symbols

Special case

Orthogonality relation

3n-j symbols

See also

References

External links

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9-j symbol

Recoupling of four angular momentum vectors

Symmetry relations

Reduction to 6j symbols

Special case

Orthogonality relation

3n-j symbols

See also

References

External links

Navigation menu

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