The Aharonov-Bohm effect: Why it cannot be eliminated from quantum mechanics

The Aharonov-Bohm effect is a necessary and easily understood feature of conventional quantum mechanics. Attempts to remove it from the theory must involve a drastic change in our understanding of the quantization and conservation of angular momentum, or of the role of the classical equations of motion in quantum mechanics. The key point is that a charged particle is the source of an electric field which will penetrate a magnetic field from which the particle is excluded. The crossed fields contain angular momentum whose existence alters the motion of the particle because the total angular momentum is quantized.     

Particle Distribution in Quantum Field Theory

The change of the particle distribution in space-time is analysed in the framework of quantum field theory. The formalism is turned out to be thermo field dynamics. The formulation suggests a unification of quantum field theory and statistical physics.     

Nonlinearity of Quantum Mechanics and Solution of the Problem of Wave Function Collapse

The problem of the wave function collapse (a problem of measurement in quantum mechanics) is considered. It is shown that it can be solved based on quantum mechanics and does not require any additional assumptions or new theories. The particle creation and annihilation processes, which are described based on quantum field theory, play a key role in the measurement processes. Superposition principle is not valid for the system of equations of quantum field theory for particles and fields, because this system is a non-linear. As a result of the creation (annihilation) of a particle, an additional uncertainty arises, which "smears" the interference pattern. The imposition of such a large number of uncertainties in the repetitive measurements leads to the classical behavior of particles. The decoherence theory also implies the creation and annihilation of particles, and this processes are the consequence of non-linearity of quantum mechanics. In this case, the term "collapse of the wave function" becomes a consequence of the other statements of quantum mechanics instead of a separate postulate of quantum mechanics.     

Nonlinearity of Quantum Mechanics and Solution of the Problem of Wave Function Collapse

The problem of the wave function collapse(a problem of measurement in quantum mechanics) is considered.It is shown that it can be solved based on quantum mechanics and does not require any additional assumptions or new theories. The particle creation and annihilation processes, which are described based on quantum field theory, play a key role in the measurement processes. Superposition principle is not valid for the system of equations of quantum field theory for particles and fields, because this system is a non-linear. As a result of the creation(annihilation) of a particle,an additional uncertainty arises, which "smears" the interference pattern. The imposition of such a large number of uncertainties in the repetitive measurements leads to the classical behavior of particles. The decoherence theory also implies the creation and annihilation of particles, and this processes are the consequence of non-linearity of quantum mechanics. In this case, the term "collapse of the wave function" becomes a consequence of the other statements of quantum mechanics instead of a separate postulate of quantum mechanics.     

The Elementary Particles of Quantum Fields

The elementary particles of relativistic quantum field theory are not simple field quanta, as has long been assumed. Rather, they supplement quantum fields, on which they depend on but to which they are not reducible, as shown here with particles defined instead as a unified collection of properties that appear in both physical symmetry group representations and field propagators. This notion of particle provides consistency between the practice of particle physics and its basis in quantum field theory.     

Quantum electrodynamics of one scalar particle

The theory of the interaction between a complex scalar field and the electromagnetic field is presented with initial and final conditions that allow an interpretation in the context of the relativistic quantum mechanics of a single charged scalar particle. Included are particle scattering, antiparticle scattering, pair creation, and pair annihilation due to a classical dynamical electromagnetic field. The equations of motion are solved by a perturbation expansion, which does not lead to the troublesome divergent terms of quantum field theory.     

Dirac方程中的量子与经典对应

根据Heisenberg对应原理(HCP),在经典极限下厄密算符的量子矩阵元对应经典物理量的Fourier展开系数.将HCP应用到相对论领域的Dirac方程中,对于自由粒子和在匀磁场中的带电粒子,其量子算符的矩阵元在经典极限下对应着相对论物理方程的解.计算表明,在经典极限下量子期望值就是对应经典物理量的时间平均值.     

Particle Trajectories for Quantum Field Theory

The formulation of quantum mechanics developed by Bohm, which can generate well-defined trajectories for the underlying particles in the theory, can equally well be applied to relativistic quantum field theories to generate dynamics for the underlying fields. However, it does not produce trajectories for the particles associated with these fields. Bell has shown that an extension of Bohm’s approach can be used to provide dynamics for the fermionic occupation numbers in a relativistic quantum field theory. In the present paper, Bell’s formulation is adopted and elaborated on, with a full account of all technical detail required to apply his approach to a bosonic quantum field theory on a lattice. This allows an explicit computation of (stochastic) trajectories for massive and massless particles in this theory. Also particle creation and annihilation, and their impact on particle propagation, is illustrated using this model.     

Limits of applicability of Gupta's theory

The applicability of the quantum theory of a weak gravitational field (Gupta's theory) is examined on the basis of the quasiclassical generally relativistic point of view. It is shown that in standard quantum theory the energy of a particle cannot be arbitrary but is bounded both below and above. These bounds arise because it is impossible to treat the region of interaction of elementary particles as a part of flat space. The lower limit depends on the curvature tensor of the external gravitational field, while the upper is determined by the gravitational field of the particle itself.     

An alternative quantum theory for single particles and a proposed experimental test

An alternative quantum theory for single particles bounded in the external field proposed in 1986 (Huang X. Y., Phys. Lett. A., 1986, 115: 310) is further developed from which the energy of the state for the single particle takes one of the eigenvalues of the quantum Hamiltonian, and the usual quantum mechanics for the particle in a stationary state holds only in the statistical sense. In light of the theory, the particle of definite energy, ground-state-energy for instance, can exhibit a novel periodic behavior. This result for the ground-state-energy state neutron in the Earth’s gravitational field is experimentally testable using ultracold neutron beam passing through the same apparatus that was devised in 2002 to identify the energy quantization of neutron in the field (Nesvizhevsky V. V., et al., Nature, 2002, 415: 297).      

A Model Detector for Hawking Radiation from a Schwarzschild Black Hole

A model detector for field quanta is considered from the point of view of a quantum field theory defined in asymptotically stationary regions of the Kruskal manifold and from that of a theory restricted to a Schwarzschild coordinate patch. A spherical array of oscillators at a constant distance r from the black hole, harmonic with respect to their proper time, is coupled to spherically symmetric Schwarzschild-modes of the field. The system is quantized and the energy expectation value of the coupled harmonic oscillators in a state of the field representing Hawking radiation is calculated. The back-reaction to the field may be interpreted in two controversial ways: In terms of the quantum field theory restricted to Schwarzschild space-time there is merely some scattering of the Hawking radiation, whereas in the framework of Kruskal quantum field theory particle production occurs.     

Product structure of heat phase space and branching Brownian motion

A generical formalism for the discussion of Brownian processes with non-constant particle number is developed, based on the observation that the phase space of heat possesses a product structure that can be encoded in a commutative unit ring. A single Brownian particle is discussed in a Hilbert module theory, with the underlying ring structure seen to be intimately linked to the non-differentiability of Brownian paths. Multi-particle systems with interactions are explicitly constructed using a Fock space approach. The resulting ring-valued quantum field theory is applied to binary branching Brownian motion, whose Dyson-Schwinger equations can be exactly solved. The presented formalism permits the application of the full machinery of quantum field theory to Brownian processes.     

Asymptotic Completeness for Infraparticles in Two-Dimensional Conformal Field Theory

We formulate a new concept of asymptotic completeness for two-dimensional massless quantum field theories in the spirit of the theory of particle weights. We show that this concept is more general than the standard particle interpretation based on Buchholz’ scattering theory of waves. In particular, it holds in any chiral conformal field theory in an irreducible product representation and in any completely rational conformal field theory. This class contains theories of infraparticles to which the scattering theory of waves does not apply.     

相对论粒子的自旋算符

发展了关于相对论态自旋算符的系统理论.考虑了具有非零静质量的粒子情况.对带自旋的相对论粒子,通常的自旋算符需换为相对论的自旋算符.在Poincar啨群不可约表示的框架里,构造了适用于粒子任意正则态的自旋算符,称为运动自旋.本文的讨论限于量子力学.随后将在量子场论中对此作进一步深入研究.     

Geometric quantization and quantum field theory in curved space-time

The Kostant-Souriau geometric quantization theory is applied to the problem of constructing a generally covariant quantum field theory. The occupation number formalism for a scalar field is introduced as a semiclassical approximation which is valid in low curvature regions of space-time and which depends on making a particular choice of polarization in the classical phase space of a single massive particle. The application of the formalism to particle creation problems is outlined.     

Stochastically and Intrinsically Extended Non-relativistic Quantum Particles

Stochastically and intrinsically extended non relativistic quantum particles are described by combining the ideas of a stochastic quantum theory and a quantum functional theory. The former relates the extension to imperfect real measurements while the latter considers it as intrinsic. Physical states, Positive-Operator-Valued measures connected to measurement, and propagators are given and discussed. The stochastic theory is sufficient when the bilocal field describing the particle has a product form.     

带电粒子在均匀磁场与三维各向同性谐振子场中运动的双波描述

研究带电粒子在均匀磁场与三维各向同性谐振子场中运动的双波描述,得到了量子结果及其 经典极限,并与纯经典情形比较. 关键词： 双波描述 均匀磁场 谐振子场     

Decay of accelerated protons and the existence of the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect

We investigate the weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons in the context of standard quantum field theory. Because the mean proper lifetime of a particle is a scalar, the same value for this observable must be obtained in the inertial and coaccelerated frames. We are only able to achieve this equality by considering the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect. This reflects the fact that the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect is mandatory for the consistency of quantum field theory.     

Quantum-classical correspondence of the relativistic equations

According to the Heisenberg correspondence principle, in the classical limit, quantum matrix element of a Hermitian operator reduces to the coefficient of the Fourier expansion of the corresponding classical quantity. In this article, such a quantum-classical connection is generalized to the relativistic regime. For the relativistic free particle or the charged particle moving in a constant magnetic field, it is shown that matrix elements of quantum operators go to quantities in Einstein’s special relativity in the classical limit. Especially, matrix element of the standard velocity operator in the Dirac theory reduces to the classical velocity. Meanwhile, it is shown that the classical limit of quantum expectation value is the time average of the classical variable.     

Intrinsic Entropy of Squeezed Quantum Fields and Nonequilibrium Quantum Dynamics of Cosmological Perturbations

Density contrasts in the universe are governed by scalar cosmological perturbations which, when expressed in terms of gauge-invariant variables, contain a classical component from scalar metric perturbations and a quantum component from inflaton field fluctuations. It has long been known that the effect of cosmological expansion on a quantum field amounts to squeezing. Thus, the entropy of cosmological perturbations can be studied by treating them in the framework of squeezed quantum systems. Entropy of a free quantum field is a seemingly simple yet subtle issue. In this paper, different from previous treatments, we tackle this issue with a fully developed nonequilibrium quantum field theory formalism for such systems. We compute the covariance matrix elements of the parametric quantum field and solve for the evolution of the density matrix elements and the Wigner functions, and, from them, derive the von Neumann entropy. We then show explicitly why the entropy for the squeezed yet closed system is zero, but is proportional to the particle number produced upon coarse-graining out the correlation between the particle pairs. We also construct the bridge between our quantum field-theoretic results and those using the probability distribution of classical stochastic fields by earlier authors, preserving some important quantum properties, such as entanglement and coherence, of the quantum field.