The underlying Brownian motion of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics

Nonrelativistic quantum mechanics can be derived from real Markov diffusion processes by extending the concept of probability measure to the complex domain. This appears as the only natural way of introducing formally classical probabilistic concepts into quantum mechanics. To every quantum state there is a corresponding complex Fokker-Planck equation. The particle drift is conditioned by an auxiliary equation which is obtained through stochastic energy conservation; the logarithmic transform of this equation is the Schrödinger equation. To every quantum mechanical operator there is a stochastic process; the replacement of operators by processes leads to all the well-known results of quantum mechanics, using stochastic calculus instead of formal quantum rules. Comparison is made with the classical stochastic approaches and the Feynman path integral formulation.     

Stochastic interpretations of nonrelativistic quantum theory

A critique of the causla and classical stochastic interpretations of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is presented. The only way that the classical stochastic formulation can be made compatible with the theory of quantum measurement is to extend the probability measure density for fluctuating paths to the complex domain. In doing so, we obtain the generalized stochiastic formulation in which the methods of classical probability theory can be used to describe the quantum mechanical phenomenon of interfering alternatives. Illustrative examples from quantum theory are used to show the complete compatibility between the traditional and generalized stochastic interpretations of quantum mechanics. Work supported in part by a contribution from the CNR.     

Stochastic dynamics: A review of stochastic calculus of variations

We present the main results of a variational calculus for Markovian stochastic processes which allows us to characterize the dynamics of probabilistic systems by extremal properties for some functionals of processes. They generalize, by construction, the main variational formulations of classical dynamics. This framework is used for the dynamical analysis of Nelson's stochastic mechanics, an approach to quantum mechanics in which the concept of trajectory for particles still makes sense. The semiclassical limit is formulated in terms of the second variation of the starting functional. We also use the proposed stochastic calculus of variations in the context of statistical mechanics of systems far from equilibrium, namely, to solve the Onsager-Machlup problem.On leave from Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève, CH-I2II, Genève 4, Switzerland.     

Statistics of Local Value in Quantum Mechanics

Given a quantum mechanical observable and a state, one can construct a classical observable, that is, a real function on the configuration space, such that it is the optimal estimate of the quantum observable, in the sense of minimum variance. This optimal estimate turns out to be the quantum mechanical local value, which arises from several contexts such as de Broglie–Bohm's casual approach to quantum mechanics, instantaneous frequency in time–frequency analysis, Nelson's quantum fluctuations formalism, and phase-space approach to quantum mechanics. Accordingly, any observable can be decomposed into a local value part and a quantum fluctuation part, which are independent, both geometrically and statistically. Furthermore, the current density in quantum mechanics, the osmotic velocity in stochastic mechanics, and the Fisher information in classical statistical inference, arise naturally in connection with local value. In particular, Heisenberg uncertainty principle can be quantified more precisely by virtue of local value.     

Fresnel Type Path Integral for the Stochastic Schrödinger Equation

A path integral representation is obtained for the stochastic partial differential equation of Schrödinger type arising in the theory of open quantum systems subject to continuous nondemolition measurement and filtering, known as the a posteriori or Belavkin equation. The result is established by means of Fresnel-type integrals over paths in configuration space. This is achieved by modifying the classical action functional in the expression for the amplitude along each path by means of a stochastic Itô integral. This modification can be regarded as an extension of Menski's path integral formula for a quantum system subject to continuous measurement to the case of the stochastic Schrödinger equation.     

Diachronic quantum action principle

Classical path and action are diachronic concepts in that they refer to many times instead of just one. The concept of a path is quantized into the concept of a propagation process between the initial preparation of and a measurement on a quantum system. A new quantum action is defined as a linear operator on the space of propagation processes, analogously to representing observables as linear operators on the ket and bra spaces. This quantization of paths and action results in a diachronic action principle: a variation of a dynamical propagation process is generated by the associated variation of the quantum action. The form of this principle is a candidate for the form of a dynamical principle of a theory without a classical time parameter.     

On the deformability of Heisenberg algebras

Based on the vanishing of the second Hochschild cohomology group of the Weyl algebra it is shown that differential algebras coming from quantum groups do not provide a non-trivial deformation of quantum mechanics. For the case of aq-oscillator there exists a deforming map to the classical algebra. It is shown that the differential calculus on quantum planes with involution, i.e., if one works in position-momentum realization, can be mapped on aq-difference calculus on a commutative real space. Although this calculus leads to an interesting discretization it is proved that it can be realized by generators of the undeformed algebra and does not possess a proper group of global transformations.     

经典粒子和量子微观粒子的运动轨道

用量子力学传播子讨论了经典粒子和量子微观粒子沿着不同轨道对传播子的贡献．通过这样的计算可以清楚地看到为什么经典粒子只是沿着满足最小作用原理的轨道，即经典轨道运动，而对于量子微观粒子沿着许多条路径都有可能．这篇短文将一些教科书中的讨论用具体的数学表达出来，使得读者更容易理解．计算表明，对于质量较大的经典粒子，沿着非经典轨道对传播子的贡献和它周围的临近轨道有强烈的抵消．只有在经典轨道附近对传播子的贡献才不为零．对于量子微观粒子没有这种差别，它可以沿着多种可能的轨道运动．     

Geometric dequantization

Dequantization is a set of rules which turn quantum mechanics (QM) into classical mechanics (CM). It is not the WKB limit of QM. In this paper we show that, by extending time to a 3-dimensional “supertime,” we can dequantize the system in the sense of turning the Feynman path integral version of QM into the functional counterpart of the Koopman-von Neumann operatorial approach to CM. Somehow this procedure is the inverse of geometric quantization and we present it in three different polarizations: the Schrödinger, the momentum and the coherent states ones.     

Fractal behavior in quantum statistical physics

The properties of an ideal gas of spinless particles are investigated by using the path integral formalism. It is shown that the quantum paths exhibit a fractal character which remains unchanged in the relativistic domain provided the creation of new particles is avoided, and the Brownian motion remains the stochastic process associated with the quantum paths. These results are obtained by using a special representation of the Klein-Gordon wave equation. On the quantum paths the relation between velocity and momentum is not the usual one. The mean square value of the velocity depends on the time needed to define the velocity and its value shows the interplay between pure quantum effects and thermodynamics. The fractal character is also investigated starting from wave equations by analyzing the evolution of a Gaussian wave packet via the Hausdorff dimension. Both approaches give the same fractal character in the same limit. It is shown that the time that appears in the path integral behaves like an ordinary time, and the key quantity is the time interval needed for the thermostat to give to the particles a thermal action equal to the quantum of action. Thus, the partition function calculated via the path integral formalism also describes the dynamics of the system for short time intervals. For low temperatures, it is shown that a time-energy uncertainty relation is verified at the end of the calculations. The energy involved in this relation has not a thermodynamic meaning but results from the fact that the particles do not follow the equations of motion along the paths. The results suggest that the density matrix obtained by quantification of the classical canonical distribution function via the path integral formalism should not be totally identical to that obtained via the usual route.     

Complex probabilities on R(N) as real probabilities on C(N) and an application to path integrals

We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for averages over complex-valued weight functions on R(N) to be represented as statistical averages over real, non-negative probability weights on C(N). Using this result, we show that many path integrals for time-ordered expectation values of bosonic degrees of freedom in real-valued time can be expressed as statistical averages over ensembles of paths with complex-valued coordinates, and then speculate on possible consequences of this result for the relation between quantum and classical mechanics.     

Diffusion processes with singular drift fields

A class of stochastic differential equations with highly singular drift fields is considered. Using a purely probabilistic approach, we can show the unattainability of the nodal set. Moreover, a global existence and uniqueness theorem for diffusion processes with singular drift fields is established. The finite action condition of Carlen and Zheng can be modified. We relate our results to the diffusions which describe the time evolution of quantum systems in stochastic mechanics.     

Aspects of supersymmetric quantum mechanics

We review the properties of supersymmetric quantum mechanics for a class of models proposed by Witten. Using both Hamiltonian and path integral formulations, we give general conditions for which supersymmetry is broken (unbroken) by quantum fluctuations. The spectrum of states is discussed, and a virial theorem is derived for the energy. We also show that the euclidean path integral for supersymmetric quantum mechanics is equivalent to a classical stochastic process when the supersymmetry is unbroken (E₀ = 0). By solving a Fokker-Planck equation for the classical probability distribution, we find P_c(y) is identical to |Ψ₀(y)|² in the quantum theory.     

Quantum Dynamics and Kinematics from a Statistical Model Selected by the Principle of Locality

Quantum mechanics predicts correlation between spacelike separated events which is widely argued to violate the principle of local causality. By contrast, here we shall show that the Schrödinger equation with Born’s statistical interpretation of wave function and uncertainty relation can be derived from a statistical model of microscopic stochastic deviation from classical mechanics which is selected uniquely, up to a free parameter, by the principle of Local Causality. Quantization is thus argued to be physical and Planck constant acquires an interpretation as the average stochastic deviation from classical mechanics in a microscopic time scale. Unlike canonical quantization, the resulting quantum system always has a definite configuration all the time as in classical mechanics, fluctuating randomly along a continuous trajectory. The average of the relevant physical quantities over the distribution of the configuration are shown to be equal numerically to the quantum mechanical average of the corresponding Hermitian operators over a quantum state.     

Numerical evaluation of the Feynman integral-over-paths in real and imaginary-time

New techniques are described for Monte Carlo evaluation of the propagation of quantum mechanical systems in both real and imaginary-time using the Feynman integral-over-paths formulation of quantum mechanics. For imaginary-time calculations path translation is used to augment the technique of Lawande et. al. This simple-yet-powerful technique allows the equilibrium probability density to be accurately evaluated in the presence of multiple potential wells. It is shown that path translation permits the calculation of the unknown ground-state energy of one confining potential by comparison with the known ground-state energy of another. A double finite-square-well potential and a finite-square-well/parabolic-well pair are presented as examples. For real-time calculations, a weighted analytical averaging of the exponential in the classical action is performed over a region of paths. This “windowed action” has both real and imaginary components. The imaginary component yields an exponentially decaying probability for selecting paths, thereby providing a basis for the Monte Carlo evaluation of the real-time integral-over-paths. Examples of a wave-packet in a parabolic well and a wave-packet impinging upon a potential barrier are considered.     

A Stochastic Mechanics Based on Bohm‧s Theory and its Connection with Quantum Mechanics

We construct a stochastic mechanics by replacing Bohm‧s first-order ordinary differential equation of motion with a stochastic differential equation where the stochastic process is defined by the set of Bohmian momentum time histories from an ensemble of particles. We show that, if the stochastic process is a purely random process with n-th order joint probability density in the form of products of delta functions, then the stochastic mechanics is equivalent to quantum mechanics in the sense that the former yields the same position probability density as the latter. However, for a particular non-purely random process, we show that the stochastic mechanics is not equivalent to quantum mechanics. Whether the equivalence between the stochastic mechanics and quantum mechanics holds for all purely random processes but breaks down for all non-purely random processes remains an open question.     

Quantum mechanics in a two-dimensional spacetime: What is a wavefunction?

Conventional quantum mechanics specifies the mathematical properties of wavefunctions and relates them to physical experiments by invoking the Born postulate. There is no known direct connection between wavefunctions and any external physical object. However, in the case of a two-dimensional spacetime there is a completely classical context for wavefunctions where the connection with an external reality is transparent and unambiguous. By examining this case, we show how a classical stochastic process assembles a Dirac wavefunction based solely on the detailed counting of reversible paths. A direct comparison of how a related process assembles a Probability Density Function reveals both how and why PDFs and wavefunctions differ, including the ubiquitous implication of complex numbers for the latter. The appearance of wavefunctions in a context that is free of the complexities of quantum mechanics suggests the study of such models may shed some light on interpretive issues.     

Quantum Measurement and Extended Feynman Path Integral

Quantum measurement problem has existed many years and inspired a large of literature in both physics and philosophy, but there is still no conclusion and consensus on it. We show it can be subsumed into the quantum theory if we extend the Feynman path integral by considering the relativistic effect of Feynman paths. According to this extended theory, we deduce not only the Klein--Gordon equation, but also the wave-function-collapse equation. It is shown that the stochastic and instantaneous collapse of the quantum measurement is due to the “potential noise” of the apparatus or environment and “inner correlation” of wave function respectively. Therefore, the definite-status of the macroscopic matter is due to itself and this does not disobey the quantum mechanics. This work will give a new recognition for the measurement problem.