A ug 1 99 2 Quantization of systems with time - dependent constraints . Example of relativistic particle in plane wave

A modification of the canonical quantization procedure for systems with time-dependent second-class constraints is discussed and applied to the quantization of the relativistic particle in a plane wave. The time dependence of constraints appears in the problem in two ways. The Lagrangian depends on time explicitly by origin, and a special time-dependent gauge is used. Two possible approaches to the quantization are demonstrated in this case. One is to solve directly a system of operator equations, proposed by Tyutin and one of the authors (Gitman) as a generalization of Dirac canonical quantization in 1 nonstationary case, and another to find first a canonical transformation , which makes it possible to discribe the dynamics in the physical sactor by means of some effective Hamiltonian. Quantum mechanics constructed in both cases proves to be equivalent to Klein-Gordon theory of the relativistic particle in a plane wave. The general conditions of unitarity of the dynamics in the physical sector are discussed.