Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Quantum dynamics without the wavefunction

Rafael D Sorkin

Show affiliations


When suitably generalized and interpreted, the path integral offers an alternative to the more familiar quantal formalism based on state vectors, self-adjoint operators and external observers. Mathematically one generalizes the path-integral-as-propagator to a quantal measure μ on the space Ω of all 'conceivable worlds', and this generalized measure expresses the dynamics or law of motion of the theory, much as Wiener measure expresses the dynamics of Brownian motion. Within such 'histories-based' schemes new and more 'realistic' possibilities open up for resolving the philosophical problems of the state-vector formalism. In particular, one can dispense with the need for external agents by locating the predictive content of μ in its sets of measure zero: such sets are to be 'precluded'. But unrestricted application of this rule engenders contradictions. One possible response would remove the contradictions by circumscribing the application of the preclusion concept. Another response, more in the tradition of 'quantum logic', would accommodate the contradictions by dualizing Ω to a space of 'co-events' and effectively identifying reality with an element of this dual space.


PACS

03.65.Ca Formalism

03.65.Ta Foundations of quantum mechanics; measurement theory

03.67.-a Quantum information

05.40.Jc Brownian motion

03.65.Fd Algebraic methods

MSC

81S40 Path integrals (See also 58D30)

81P68 Quantum computation and quantum cryptography (See also 68Q05, 94A60)

81P15 Quantum measurement theory

Subjects

Computational physics

Statistical physics and nonlinear systems

Quantum information and quantum mechanics

Dates

Issue 12 (23 March 2007)

Received 24 October 2006

Published 7 March 2007



  1. Quantum dynamics without the wavefunction

    Rafael D Sorkin 2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 3207

  2. Comparison of area spectra in loop quantum gravity

    G Gour and V Suneeta 2004 Class. Quantum Grav. 21 3405

  3. Development of radiobiology for oncology—a personal view

    Jack F Fowler 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 R263

  4. Bounding spectral gaps of Markov chains: a novel exact multi-decomposition technique

    N Destainville 2003 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 36 3647

  5. Sub-milliarcsecond Imaging of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Additional Sources

    J. A. Zensus et al. 2002 The Astronomical Journal 124 662

  6. First-principles calculations on the structure of hydrogen aggregates in silicon and diamond

    N Martsinovich et al 2003 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 S2815

  7. Mixed order parameters, accidental nodes and broken time reversal symmetry in organic superconductors: a group theoretical analysis

    B J Powell 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18 L575

  8. Calculating Cross Sections of Composite Interstellar Grains

    Nikolai V. Voshchinnikov and John S. Mathis 1999 ApJ 526 257

  9. Sensitivity of a VIRGO pair to relic gravitational wave backgrounds

    D Babusci and M Giovannini 2000 Class. Quantum Grav. 17 2621

  10. Modeling the Infrared Emission from the Eridani Disk

    Aigen Li et al 2003 ApJ 598 L51

Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. Towards quantum gravity: a framework for probabilistic theories with non-fixed causal structure
  2. Quantum physics and human language
  3. Context, spacetime loops and the interpretation of quantum mechanics
More

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.