The distinction between positive and negative energies arises because the desired scaling—the one that eliminates the Hamiltonian from the right-hand side of the Poisson bracket relations between the components of the scaled LRL vector—involves the square root of the Hamiltonian. To obtain real-valued functions, we must then take the absolute value of the Hamiltonian, which distinguishes between positive values (where | H | = H ) and negative values (where | H | = − − H ).