The equivalence of the Rivier-Margenau-Hill and Born-Jordan-Shankara phase space formalisms to the conventional operator approach of quantum mechanics is demonstrated. It is shown that in spite of the presence of singular kernels the mappings relating phase space functions and operators back and forth are possible.
We present an alternative formalism of quantum mechanics tailored to statistical ensemble in phase space. The purpose of our work is to show that it is possible to establish an alternative autonomous formalism of quantum mechanics in phase space using statistical methodology. The adopted perspective leads to obtaining within the framework of its theory the master quantum-mechanical equation without recourse to the other formalisms of quantum mechanics, and gives the idea of operators pertaining to dynamical quantities. The derivation of this equation starts with the ensemble in phase space. We…
We point out that Fratini and Hayrapetyan ignored the randomness of mixing, a basic request to prepare a statistical ensemble rather than an ensemble in general. Their analysis is irrelevant for standard statistical ensembles, their conclusions about the limitations of standard theory become unjustified.
In a paper of us, it is showed that Density Matrices do not provide a complete description of ensembles of states in quantum mechanics, since they lack measurable information concerning the preparation of the ensembles. Bodor and Diósi have later posted a comment on that article, which agrees on some points of it but disagrees on some others. This reply is intended to clarify the discussion.
We show that two chosen ensembles of spin states, which are differently prepared but are described by the same density matrix in quantum mechanics, do not fully share the same measurable characteristics. One characteristic on which they differ is shown to be the variance of the spin along a given direction. We conclude that the statistical description of an ensemble of states as given by its density matrix, although sufficient in many cases, should be considered incomplete, as it does not fully describe the measurable characteristics of the ensemble. A discussion a posteriori on the problem is…
The main aim of this note is to show that the formalism of multi-time equations in quantum mechanics meant to represent a manifestly Lorentz-invariant theory suffers from at least three imperfections: (1) It does not cover those physical systems for which the Schrödinger picture of quantum mechanics does not exist. (2) The integrabiliy condition which has been proposed in the formalism does not imply as necessary that for every partial Hamiltonian there exists a Schrödinger equation. (3) The formalism does not generally allow for interactions even in a non-relativistic multi-particle quantum s…
Our aim in this paper is to show an example of the formalism we have developed to avoid the label-tensor-product-vector-space-formalism of quantum mechanics when dealing with indistinguishable quanta. States in this new vector space, that we call the Q-space, refer only to occupation numbers and permutation operators act as the identity operator on them, reflecting in the formalism the unobservability of permutations, a goal of quasi-set theory.
Bohmian mechanics provides an explanation of quantum phenomena in terms of point particles guided by wave functions. This review focuses on the formalism of non-relativistic Bohmian mechanics, rather than its interpretation. Although the Bohmian and standard quantum theories have different formalisms, both give exactly the same predictions for all phenomena. Fifteen years ago, the quantum chemistry community began to study the practical usefulness of Bohmian mechanics. Since then, the scientific community has mainly applied it to study the (unitary) evolution of single-particle wave functions,…
A qualitative but formalized representation of microstates is first established quite independently of the quantum mechanical mathematical formalism, exclusively under epistemological-operational-methodological constraints. Then, using this representation as a reference-and-imbedding-structure, the foundations of an intelligible reconstruction of the Hilbert-Dirac formulation of Quantum Mechanics is developed. Inside this reconstruction the measurement problem as well as the other major problems raised by the quantum mechanical formalism, dissolve.
A Newtonian mechanics model is essentially the model of a point body in an inertial reference frame. How to describe extended bodies in non-inertial (vibrational) reference frames with the random initial conditions? One of the most general description (known as the higher derivatives formalism) consists in taking into account the infinite number of the higher order temporal derivatives of the coordinates in the Lagrange function. Such formalism describes physical objects in the infinite dimensional space does not contradict quantum mechanics and infinite dimensional Hilbert space.
We combine the ideas of Dirac's orthonormal representation, Everett's relative state, and 't Hooft's ontological basis to define the notion of a world for quantum mechanics. Mathematically, for a quantum system $\mathcal{Q}$ with an associated Hilbert space $\mathbb{H},$ a world of $\mathcal{Q}$ is defined to be an orthonormal basis of $\mathbb{H}.$ The evolution of the system is governed by Schrödinger's equation for the worlds of it. An observable in a certain world is a self-adjoint operator diagonal under the corresponding basis. Moreover, a state is defined in an associated world but can …
This note is an addendum to quant-ph/0507115. In that paper, I present a formalism for relativistic quantum mechanics in which the spacetime paths of particles are considered fundamental, reproducing the standard results of the traditional formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Now, it is well known that there are issues with the ability to localize the position of particles in the usual formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics. The present note shows how, in the spacetime path formalism, the natural representation of on-shell 3-momentum states is effectiv…
Quantum nonlocality is discussed as an aspect of the quantum formalism that is seriously in need of interpretation. The Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which describes quantum processes as transactional "handshakes" between retarded $ψ$ waves and advanced $ψ*$ waves, is discussed. Examples of the use of the Transactional Interpretation in resolving quantum paradoxes and in understanding the counter-intuitive aspects of the formalism, particularly quantum nonlocality, are provided.
A generalized dynamics is postulated in a product space ${\cal R}^{3}\times {\cal S}^{1}$ with ${\cal R}^3$ representing the configuration space of a one particle system to which is attached the U(1) fibre bundle represented by the manifold ${\cal S}^{1}$. The manifold ${\cal S}^{1}$ is chosen to correspond to the action phase, with the action being the principal function corresponding to the associated classical dynamical system. A Hilbert space representation of the flow equation representing the dynamics in the above product space is then obtained, which is found to yield a probability ampl…
We introduce a formalism that exploits the many-input many-output nature of nodes in quantum circuits. There is a diagrammatic and an algebraic version, the latter similar to the spinor formalism of general relativity. This allows us to work in truly basis independent ways, clarifying and simplifying many aspects of quantum state processing. The narrative is at times interrupted by antics of characters from quantum age fairy tales.
The $2 \times 2$-matrix structure of Green's functions is a common feature for the real-time formalisms of quantum field theory under thermal situations, such as the closed time path formalism and Thermo Field Dynamics (TFD). It has been believed to originate from quantum nature. Recently, Galley has proposed the Hamilton's principle with initial data for nonconservative classical systems, doubling each degree of freedom [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 174301 (2013)]. We show that the Galley's Hamilton formalism can be extended to quantum field and that the resulting theory is naturally identical with …
A simple methodology is suggested for the efficient calculation of certain central potentials having singularities. The generalized pseudospectral method used in this work facilitates {\em nonuniform} and optimal spatial discretization. Applications have been made to calculate the energies, densities and expectation values for two singular potentials of physical interest, {\em viz.,} (i) the harmonic potential plus inverse quartic and sextic perturbation and (ii) the Coulomb potential with a linear and quadratic term for a broad range of parameters. The first 10 states belonging to a maximum o…
We present an alternative to the Copenhagen interpretation of the formalism of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The basic difference is that the new interpretation is formulated in the language of epistemological realism. It involves a change in some basic physical concepts. Elementary particles are considered as extended objects and nonlocal effects are included. The role of the new concepts in the problem of measurement and of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations is described. Experiments to distinguish the proposed interpretation from the Copenhagen one are pointed out.
The fluctuations or disordered motion of the electromagnetic fields are described by statistical properties rather than instantaneous values. This statistical description of the optical fields is underlying in the Stokes-Mueller formalism that applies to measurable intensities. However, the fundamental concept of optical coherence, that is assessed by the ability of waves to interfere, is not treatable by this formalism because it omits the global phase. In this work we show that, using an analogy between deterministic matrix states associated to optical media and quantum mechanical wavefuncti…
Time-symmetric quantum mechanics can be described in the usual Weyl--Wigner--Moyal formalism (WWM) by using the properties of the Wigner distribution, and its generalization, the cross-Wigner distribution. The use of the latter makes clear a strongly oscillating interference between the pre- and post-selected states. This approach allows us to give explicit formulas for the state reconstruction problem, thus generalizing known results to the case of arbitrary observables. In a forthcoming paper we will extend these results to other quantization schemes.
We present a mathematical formalism of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics, following the Dirac-von Neumann formalism of quantum mechanics. In this formalism, the state postulate is the same as in the Dirac-von Neumann formalism, but the observable postulate should be changed to include para-Hermitian operators (spectral operators of scalar type with real spectrum) representing observable, as such both the measurement postulate and the evolution postulate must be modified accordingly. This is based on a Stone type theorem as proved here that the dynamics of non-Hermitian quantum systems is governe…
Based on some results on reparmetrisation of time in Hamiltonian path integral formalism, a pseudo time formulation of operator formalism of quantum mechanics is presented. Relation of reparametrisation of time in quantum with super symmetric quantum mechanics is established. We show how some important concepts such as shape invariance and tools like isospectral deformation appear in pseudo time quantum mechanics.
We reformulate quantum tunneling in a multi-dimensional system where the tunneling sector is non-linearly coupled to oscillators. The WKB wave function is explicitly constructed under the assumption that the system was in the ground state before tunneling. We find that the quantum state after tunneling can be expressed in the language of the conventional in-in formalism. Some implications of the result to cosmology are discussed.
As the first step in an approach to the solution of Hilbert's sixth problem, a general scheme of mechanics, called `supmech', is developed integrating noncommutative symplectic geometry and noncommutative probability theory in an algebraic framework; it has quantum mechanics (QM) and classical mechanics as special subdisciplines and facilitates an autonomous development of QM and satisfactory treatments of quantum-classical correspondence and quantum measurements (including a straightforward \emph{derivation} of the von Neumann reduction rule). The scheme associates, with every `experimentally…
We introduce a version of the Hamiltonian formalism based on the Clairaut equation theory, which allows us a self-consistent description of systems with degenerate (or singular) Lagrangian. A generalization of the Legendre transform to the case, when the Hessian is zero is done using the mixed (envelope/general) solutions of the multidimensional Clairaut equation. The corresponding system of equations of motion is equivalent to the initial Lagrange equations, but contains "nondynamical" momenta and unresolved velocities. This system is reduced to the physical phase space and presented in the H…
In this paper, we propose an effective model including a macroscopic Hamiltonian to describe the interactions between a two-level atom and scattered light in a 1-D dielectric waveguide. The proposed formalism allows us to incorporate the effect of changing optical media inside the continuum while demonstrating a non-classical derivation of Fresnel Law. We obtain the transport characteristics of the two-level system, explore its high-Q bandreject filter property and discuss the implications of radiative and non-radiative dissipation. In addition, we apply our formalism to a modified Fabry-Pérot…
We develop an extension of Bohmian mechanics by defining Bohm-like trajectories for quantum particles in a curved background space-time containing a spacelike singularity. As an example of such a metric we use the Schwarzschild metric, which contains two spacelike singularities, one in the past and one in the future. Since the particle world lines are everywhere timelike or lightlike, particles can be annihilated but not created at a future spacelike singularity, and created but not annihilated at a past spacelike singularity. It is argued that in the presence of future (past) spacelike singul…
Nonreflexive quantum mechanics is a formulation of quantum theory based on a non-classical logic termed \ita{nonreflexive logic} (a.k.a. `non-reflexive'). In these logics, the standard notion of identity, as encapsulated in classical logic and set theories, does not hold in full. The basic aim of this kind of approach to quantum mechanics is to take seriously the claim made by some authors according to whom quantum particles are \ita{non-individuals} in some sense, and also to take into account the fact that they may be absolutely indistinguishable (or indiscernible). The nonreflexive formulat…
