Eigenvalue degeneracy in real physical systems

In summary: BillIn summary, according to quantum mechanics, degeneracies can be associated with symmetry or topological characteristics of the system. If a system has an odd number of electrons, for example, it will have at least a two-fold degeneracy. When all the operators in a system are represented by non-degenerate matrices, it is true that the eigenvalues are distinguishable. However, this is only true when all the observables in the system are measured. If not, the system is said to be in a superposition of different eigenstates and the collapse postulate must be taken with some grain of salt.
  • #176
ErikZorkin said:
numerical methods often do not meet the specifications.
This just means that the specifications are overly strict.

Typically, the input of a matrix problem is already inaccurate, hence requiring the output to be accurate to the last bit is meaningless. If ##A## is a Hermitian matrix with a double eigenvalue and you perturb each coefficient by ##O(\epsilon)##, the eigenvalues will typically separate by an amount of ##O(\sqrt{\epsilon})## and the eigenvectors will typically even depend discontinuously on the perturbation. Thus the solution of the exact problem means nothing for the intended unknown problem nearby.

Since we didn't get closer after 175 posts I'll stop contributing to this thread.
 
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  • #177
Who didn't get closer? I did (as I mentioned some posts ago).
 
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