Boundaries without boundaries

Starting with a quantum particle on a closed manifold without boundary, we consider the process of generating boundaries by madding out by a group action with fixed points, and we study the emergent quantum dynamics on the quotient manifold. As an illustrative example, we consider a free nonrelativistic quantum particle on the circle and generate the interval via parity reduction. A free particle with Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions on the interval is obtained, and, by changing the metric near the boundary, Robin boundary conditions can also be accommodated. We also indicate a possible method of generating nonlocal boundary conditions. Then, we explore an alternative generation mechanism which makes use of a folding procedure and is applicable to a generic Hamiltonian through the emergence of an ancillary spin degree of freedom. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.