Quantum mechanics of relativistic spinless particles

A relativistic one-particle, quantum theory for spin-zero particles is constructed uponL ²(x, ct), resulting in a positive definite spacetime probability density. A generalized Schrödinger equation having a Hermitian HamiltonianH onL ²(x, ct) for an arbitrary four-vector potential is derived. In this formalism the rest mass is an observable and a scalar particle is described by a wave packet that is a superposition of mass states. The requirements of macroscopic causality are shown to be satisfied by the most probable trajectory of a free tardyon and a nontrivial framework for charged and neutral particles is provided. The Klein paradox is resolved and a link to the free particle field operators of quantum field theory is established. A charged particle interacting with a static magnetic field is discussed as an example of the formalism.     

Quasipotential approach to the Coulomb bound state problem for spin-0 and spin-12 particles

A recently proposed local quasipotential equation is reviewed and applied to the electromagnetic interaction of a spin-0 and a $\text{spin}\text{-}\text{1}\text{2}$ particle. The Dirac particle is treated in a covariant two-component formalism in the neighbourhood of the mass shell. The fine structure of the bound state energy levels and the main part of the Lamb shift (of order α⁵ ln(1/α)) are evaluated with full account of relativistic recoil effects (without using any inverse mass expansion). Possible relevance of the techniques developed in this paper to fine structure calculations for meso-atomic systems is pointed out.     

Wigner's pseudo-particle relativistic dynamics in external potential field

The Wigner's pseudo-particle formalism has been generalized to describe quantum dynamics of relativistic particle in external potential field. As a simplest application of the developed formalism the time evolution of the 1D relativistic quantum harmonic oscillator been considered. Due to the complex structure of the evolution equation for Wigner function, the only numerical treatment is possible by combining Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods. Relativistic dynamics results in appearance of the new physical effects as opposed to non-relativistic case. Interesting is the complete changing of the shape of the momentum and coordinate distribution functions as well as formation of ‘unexpected’ protuberances. To analyze the influence of relativistic effects on average values of quantum operators, the dependencies on time of average momentum, position, their dispersions and energy have been compared for the non-relativistic and relativistic dynamics.     

Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms for relativistic dynamics of a charged particle with dipole moment

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations for the relativistic classical dynamics of a charged particle with dipole moment in the presence of an electromagnetic field are given. The differential conservation laws for the energy-momentum and angular momentum tensors of a field and particle are discussed. The Poisson brackets for basic dynamic variables, which form a closed algebra, are found. These Poisson brackets enable us to perform the canonical quantization of the Hamiltonian equations that leads to the Dirac wave equation in the case of spin 1/2. It is also shown that the classical limit of the squared Dirac equation results in equations of motion for a charged particle with dipole moment obtained from the Lagrangian formulation. The inclusion of gravitational field and non-Abelian gauge fields into the proposed formalism is discussed.Received: 4 June 2005, Published online: 27 July 2005     

Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in the general theory of relativity: II. Linear fields in a kinetic approximation

The first paper in this series introduced a new, manifestly covariant approach to non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in classical general relativity. The object of this second paper is to apply that formalism to the evolution of a collection of particles that interact via linear fields in a fixed curved background spacetime. Given the viewpoint adopted here, the fundamental objects of the theory are a many-particle distribution function, which lives in a many-particle phase space, and a many-particle conservation equation which this distribution satisfies. By viewing a composite N-particle system as interacting one- and (N ? 1)-particle subsystems, one can derive exact coupled equations for appropriately defined reduced one- and (N ? 1)-particle distribution functions. Alternatively, by treating all the particles on an identical footing, one can extract an exact closed equation involving only the one-particle distribution. The implementation of plausible assumptions, which constitute straightforward generalizations of standard non-relativistic “kinetic approximations”, then permits the formulation of an approximate kinetic equation for the one-particle distribution function. In the obvious non-relativistic limit, one recovers the well-known Vlasov-Landau equation. The explicit form for the relativistic expression is obtained for three concrete examples, namely, interactions via an electromagnetic field, a massive scalar field, and a symmetric second rank tensor field. For a large class of interactions, of which these three examples are representative, the kinetic equation will admit a relativistic Maxwellian distribution as an exact stationary solution; and, for these interactions, an H-theorem may be proved.     

On the relativistic equation for particles with spinj in the 2[2j+1] — component formalism

The equation describing a relativistic particle with spinj and massm by a 2[2j+1] component wave function is derived using the method of boost transformations. The formalism developed in this paper allows us to find the wave functions satisfying the equation obtained and to construct the relativistically invariant quantities from these functions in an easy way. For the case of spin 3/2 the unitary equivalence with earlier results is demonstrated.     

Matter Density and Relativistic Models of Wave Function Collapse

Mathematical models for the stochastic evolution of wave functions that combine the unitary evolution according to the Schrödinger equation and the collapse postulate of quantum theory are well understood for non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Recently, there has been progress in making these models relativistic. But even with a fully relativistic law for the wave function evolution, a problem with relativity remains: Different Lorentz frames may yield conflicting values for the matter density at a space-time point. We propose here a relativistic law for the matter density function. According to our proposal, the matter density function at a space-time point x is obtained from the wave function ψ on the past light cone of x by setting the i-th particle position in |ψ|² equal to x, integrating over the other particle positions, and averaging over i. We show that the predictions that follow from this proposal agree with all known experimental facts.     

Metric energy-momentum tensor for polarizable particles in an electormagnetic field

Within the covariant Lagrange formalism and the relativistic theory of continuous media, the metric energy-momentum tensor is obtained for spin polarizable particles interacting with an electromagnetic field. An equation of motion of the polarizable particles with a spin of 1/2 in an external electromagnetic field is derived. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 21–29, December, 2006.     

Quantum theory: A Hilbert space formalism for probability theory

It is shown that the Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics can be derived as a corrected form of probability theory. These constructions yield the Schrödinger equation for a particle in an electromagnetic field and exhibit a relationship of this equation to Markov processes. The operator formalism for expectation values is shown to be related to anL ² representation of marginal distributions and a relationship of the commutation rules for canonically conjugate observables to a topological relationship of two manifolds is indicated.     

WKB analysis of relativistic Stern–Gerlach measurements

Spin is an important quantum degree of freedom in relativistic quantum information theory. This paper provides a first-principles derivation of the observable corresponding to a Stern–Gerlach measurement with relativistic particle velocity. The specific mathematical form of the Stern–Gerlach operator is established using the transformation properties of the electromagnetic field. To confirm that this is indeed the correct operator we provide a detailed analysis of the Stern–Gerlach measurement process. We do this by applying a WKB approximation to the minimally coupled Dirac equation describing an interaction between a massive fermion and an electromagnetic field. Making use of the superposition principle we show that the +1 and −1 spin eigenstates of the proposed spin operator are split into separate packets due to the inhomogeneity of the Stern–Gerlach magnetic field. The operator we obtain is dependent on the momentum between particle and Stern–Gerlach apparatus, and is mathematically distinct from two other commonly used operators. The consequences for quantum tomography are considered.     

Point-form quantum field theory and meson form factors

We comment on canonical quantization of relativistic field theories on a Lorentz-invariant surface of the form x ² = τ². By this choice of the quantization surface all components of the four-momentum operator become interaction dependent, whereas the generators of Lorentz transformations stay free of interactions – a feature characteristic for Dirac’s “point-form” of relativistic dynamics. In the sequel we demonstrate how field theoretical concepts may enter the framework of relativistic quantum mechanics. To this aim we employ a Poincaré-invariant approximation scheme, which allows to reduce a field theoretical many-body problem to a multichannel problem for a Bakamjian-Thomas-type mass operator. As an application of this multichannel formalism we will discuss the scattering of an electron by a (confined) quark-antiquark pair. It will be sketched how an electromagnetic meson form factor can be extracted from the one-photon exchange optical potential.     

Relativistic quantum particle in a homogeneous external field

The model of the relativistic quantum particle in a homogeneous external field is proposed. This model is realized in the one-dimensional relativistic configurational x-space and is described by the finite-difference equation. The momentum p-space in our case is the one-dimensional Lobachevsky space. We have found the wave functions and propagator for the model under study in both x- and p-representations.     

Differentiable probabilities: A new viewpoint on spin,gauge invariance,gauge fields,and relativistic quantum mechanics

A new approach to developing formulisms of physics based solely on laws of mathematics is presented. From simple, classical statistical definitions for the observed space-time position and proper velocity of a particle having a discrete spectrum of internal states we derive u generalized Schrödinger equation on the space-time manifold. This governs the evolution of an N component wave function with each component square integrable over this manifold and is structured like that for a charged particle in an electromagnetic field but also includes SU(N) gauge field couplings. This construction reveals a new hasis for gauge invariance and new insight into the appearance of spin and other such properties in relativistic quantum mechanics and suggests a new charged particle model.     

Quantum Potential in Relativistic Dynamics

The experimental confirmation of nonlocality has renewed interest in Bohm's quantum potential. The construction of quantum potentials for relativistic systems has encountered difficulties which do not arise in a parametrized formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics known as Relativistic Dynamics. The purpose of this paper is to show how to construct a quantum potential in the relativistic domain by deriving a relativistically invariant quantum potential using Relativistic Dynamics. The formalism is applied to three relativistic scalar particle models: a single particle interacting with a scalar potential; N particles interacting with a scalar potential; and a single particle interacting with an electromagnetic 4-vector potential.     

Electromagnetic N-Δ transition form factors in a covariant quark-diquark model

The electromagnetic N-Δ transition form factors are calculated in the framework of a formally covariant constituent diquark model. As a spin- $tfrac {3}{2}$ particle the Δ is assumed to be a bound state of a quark and an axial-vector diquark. The wave function is obtained from a diquark-quark Salpeter equation with an instantaneous quark exchange potential. The three transition form factors are calculated for momentum transfers squared from the pseudothreshold (M_Δ ?M _N )² up to ?2 (GeV/c)². The magnetic form factor is in qualitative agreement with experiment. We find very interesting results for the ratios E2/M1 and C2/M1.     

Geometric quantization in the presence of an electromagnetic field

Some aspects of the formalism of geometric quantization are described emphasizing the role played by the symmetry group of the quantum system which, for the free particle, turns out to be a central extensionG(_m) of the Galilei groupG. The resulting formalism is then applied to the case of a particle interacting with the electromagnetic field, which appears as a necessary modification of the connection 1-form of the quantum bundle when its invariance group is generalized to alocal extension ofG. Finally, the quantization of the electric charge in the presence of a Dirac monopole is also briefly considered.