Classical Dynamics from Self-Consistency Equations in Quantum Mechanics - Extended Version

During the last three decades, P. Bóna has developed a non-linear generalization of quantum mechanics, based on symplectic structures for normal states and offering a general setting which is convenient to study the emergence of macroscopic classical dynamics from microscopic quantum processes. We propose here a new mathematical approach to Bona's one, with much brother domain of applicability. It highlights the central role of self-consistency. This leads to a mathematical framework in which the classical and quantum worlds are naturally entangled. We build a Poisson bracket for the polynomial functions on the hermitian weak^ast continuous functionals on any C^ast -algebra. This is reminiscent of a well-known construction for finite-dimensional Lie algebras. We then restrict this Poisson bracket to states of this C^ast -algebra, by taking quotients with respect to Poisson ideals. This leads to densely defined symmetric derivations on the commutative C^ast -algebras of real-valued functions on the set of states. Up to a closure, these are proven to generate C₀-groups of contractions. As a matter of fact, in general commutative C^ast -algebras, even the closableness of unbounded symmetric derivations is a non-trivial issue. Some new mathematical concepts are introduced, which are possibly interesting by themselves: the convex weak ^ast Gâteaux derivative, state-dependent C^ast -dynamical systems and the weak^ast -Hausdorff hypertopology, a new hypertopology used to prove, among other things, that convex weak^ast -compact sets generically have weak^ast -dense extreme boundary in infinite dimension. Our recent results on macroscopic dynamical properties of lattice-fermion and quantum-spin systems with long-range, or mean-field, interactions corroborate the relevance of the general approach we present here.