The connection between spin and symmetry was established by Wigner in his 1939 paper on the Poincaré group. For a massive particle at rest, the little group is O(3) from which the concept of spin emerges. The little group for a massless particle is isomorphic to the two-dimensional Euclidean group with one rotational and two translational degrees of freedom. The rotational degree corresponds to the helicity, and the translational degrees to the gauge degree of freedom. The question then is whether these two different symmetries can be united. Another hard-pressing problem is Feynman's parton picture which is valid only for hadrons moving with speed close to that of light. While the hadron at rest is believed to be a bound state of quarks, the question arises whether the parton picture is a Lorentz-boosted bound state of quarks. We study these problems within Einstein's framework in which the energy-momentum relations for slow particles and fast particles are two different manifestations one covariant entity.
The 20th-century physics starts with Einstein and ends with Feynman. Einstein introduced the Lorentz-covariant world with E = mc^{2}. Feynman observed that fast-moving hadrons consist of partons which act incoherently with external signals. If quarks and partons are the same entities observed in different Lorentz frames, the question then is why partons are incoherent while quarks are coherent. This is the most puzzling question Feynman left for us to solve. In this report, we discuss Wigner's role in settling this question. Einstein's E = mc^{2}, which takes the form E = \sqrt{m^{2} + p^{2}},…
Recent developments in elementary quantum mechanics have seen a number of extraordinary claims regarding quantum behaviour, and even questioning internal consistency of the theory. These are, we argue, different disguises of what Feynman described as quantum theory's "only mystery".
This paper discusses several methods for describing the dynamics of open quantum systems, where the environment of the open system is infinite-dimensional. These are purifications, phase space forms, master equation and liouville equation forms. The main contribution is in using Feynman-Kac formalisms to describe the infinite-demsional components.
The place and role of an Observer in quantum mechanics has been a subject of an ongoing debate since the theory's inception. Wigner brought this question to the fore in a celebrated scenario in which a super-Observer observes a Friend making a measurement. Here we briefly review why this \e{Wigner Friend scenario} has been taken to require the introduction of the Observer's consciousness, or alternatively to show the inconsistency of quantum measurement theory. We will argue that quantum theory can consistently leave observers outside its narrative, by making only minimal assumptions about how…
Gell-Mann's quarks are coherent particles confined within a hadron at rest, but Feynman's partons are incoherent particles which constitute a hadron moving with a velocity close to that of light. It is widely believed that the quark model and the parton model are two different manifestations of the same covariant entity. If this is the case, the question arises whether the Lorentz boost destroys coherence. It is pointed out that this is not the case, and it is possible to resolve this puzzle without inventing new physics. It is shown that this decoherence is due to the measurement processes wh…
Since Feynman proposed his parton model in 1969, one of the most pressing problems in high-energy physics has been whether partons are quarks. It is shown that the quark model and the parton model are two different manifestations of one covariant entity. The nature of transition from the confined quarks to plasma-like partons is studied in terms of the entropy and temperature coming from the time-separation variable. According to Einstein, the time-separation variable exists wherever there is a spatial separation, but it is not observed in the present form of quantum mechanics. It belongs to F…
When Einstein formulated his special relativity in 1905, he established the law of Lorentz transformations for point particles. It is now known that particles have internal space-time structures. Particles, such as photons and electrons, have spin variables. Protons and other hadrons are regarded as bound states of more fundamental particles called quarks which have their internal variables. It is still one of the most outstanding problems whether these internal space-time variables are transformed according to Einstein's law of Lorentz transformations. It is noted that Wigner, Dirac, and Feyn…
The extended Wigner's friend problem deals with two Observers each measuring a sealed laboratory in which a friend is making a quantum measurement. We investigate this problem by relying on the basic rules of quantum mechanics as exposed by Feynman in the well-known "Feynman Lectures on Physics". Although recent discussions have suggested that the extended Wigner's friend problem cannot consistently be described by quantum theory, we show here that a straightforward application of these standard rules results in a non-ambiguous and consistent account of the measurement outcomes for all agents …
Starting from Feynman's Lagrangian description of quantum mechanics, we propose a method to construct explicitly the propagator for the Wigner distribution function of a single system. For general quadratic Lagrangians, only the classical phase space trajectory is found to contribute to the propagator. Inspired by Feynman's and Vernon's influence functional theory we extend the method to calculate the propagator for the reduced Wigner function of a system of interest coupled to an external system. Explicit expressions are obtained when the external system consists of a set of independent harmo…
R. P. Feynman was quite fond of inventing new physics. It is shown that some of his physical ideas can be supported by the mathematical instruments available from the Lorentz group. As a consequence, it is possible to construct a Lorentz-covariant picture of the parton model. It is shown first how the Lorentz group can be used for studying the internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles. These symmetries are dictated by Wigner's little groups, whose transformations leave the energy-momentum four-vector of a given particle invariant. The symmetry of massive particles is like the th…
The Salecker-Wigner-Peres (SWP) clock is often used to determine the duration a quantum particle is supposed to spend is a specified region of space $\Om$. By construction, the result is a real positive number, and the method seems to avoid the difficulty of introducing complex time parameters, which arises in the Feynman paths approach. However, it tells little about about the particle's motion. We investigate this matter further, and show that the SWP clock, like any other Larmor clock, correlates the rotation of its angular momentum with the durations, $τ$, which the Feynman paths spend in …
The difference between Lorentz invariance and Lorentz covariance is discussed in detail. A covariant formalism is developed for the internal space-time symmetry of extended particles, especially in connection with the insightful observations Feynman made during the period 1969-72. A Lorentz-group formalism is presented for the harmonic oscillator model of Feynman, Kislinger and Ravndal, which was originally based on hadronic mass spectra. This covariant version allows us to construct a parton distribution function by Lorentz-boosting the oscillator wave function of a hadron at rest. The role o…
String models are designed to provide a covariant description of internal space-time structure of relativistic particles. The string is a limiting case of a series of massive beads like a pearl necklace. In the limit of infinite-number of zero-mass beads, it becomes a field-theoretic string. Another interesting limit is to keep only two pearls by eliminating all others, resulting in a harmonic oscillator. The basic strength of the oscillator model is its mathematical simplicity. This encourages us to construct two-pearl strings for a covariant picture of relativistic extended particles. We ach…
The quark model and the parton model are known to be two different manifestations of the same covariant entity. However, the interaction amplitudes of partons are incoherent while they are coherent in the quark model. According to Feynman, this is due to the dilation of the interaction time among the quarks. We present a quantitative analysis of this time-dilation problem using Lorentz boosts as squeeze transformations.
Since quarks are regarded as the most fundamental particles which constitute hadrons that we observe in the real world, there are many theories about how many of them are needed and what quantum numbers they carry. Another important question is what keeps them inside the hadron, which is known to have space-time extension. Since they are relativistic objects, how would the hadron appear to observers in different Lorentz frames? The hadron moving with speed close to that of light appears as a collection of Feynman's partons. In other words, the same object looks differently to observers in two …
It is known that two coupled harmonic oscillators can support the symmetry group as rich as O(3,3) which corresponds to the Lorentz group applicable to three space-like and three time-like coordinates. This group contains many subgroups, including O(3), O(3,2), O(2,1) which are already familiar to us. In this report, we discuss the symmetry of O(1,1) which plays pivotal roles in quantum optics and particle physics. For this one-parameter group, a full-fledged group theory is not necessary, and we can start the discussion from the Hamiltonian of the coupled oscillator system. It is shown first …
While internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles are dictated by the little groups of the Poincaré group, it is possible to construct representations of the little group for massive particles starting from harmonic oscillator wave functions for the quark model. The resulting oscillator wave functions are covariant and can be Lorentz-boosted. It is thus possible to obtain the parton model by boosting the quark model. A review of Wigner's theory of the little groups is given. It is shown that the covariant oscillator wave functions become squeezed as as the system becomes boosted. …
