---------------------------------------------- S1k. Quantization in non-Cartesian coordinates ---------------------------------------------- Textbook quantization rules assume (often silently, without warning) Cartesian coordinates. The rules derived there are based on canonical commutation rules and are invalid for systems described in other coordinate systems. In particular, a Hamiltonian alone does not have a physical meaning since it can be quite arbitrarily transformed by coordinate transformations. The Hamiltonian needs to be combined with the correct Poisson bracket to yield the correct dynamical equations. Only if the classical Poisson bracket satisfies the canonical commutation rules, the quantum mechanics is obtained by imposing canonical commutation rules on the commutators. The standard quantization procedure assumes that the symplectic form underlying the Hamiltonian description has the standard form p dq - q dp. Under a coordinate transformation, the symplectic form changes into something nonstandard, and naive quantization gives wrong results. To get correct results, one has to take account of the correct symplectic structure, more precisely of the Poisson bracket defined by it. This is most naturally done in a differential geometric setting, in terms of symplectic manifolds and Poisson manifolds. To proceed, one must quantize a symplectic (or a Poisson) manifold together with a Hamiltonian defined on it. This combination is invariant under coordinate transformations and hence has a coordinate-independent geometric meaning. How to quantize Hamiltonians on a symplectic (or a Poisson) manifold is the subject of geometric quantization, about which there is a significant literature.