Quantum nonlocality is revisited from a novel point of view by studying the problem of an originally classical particle immersed in the stochastic zero-point radiation field (zpf). The entire system is left to evolve until it reaches a state in which the radiative terms cancel each other in the mean in a first approximation. The ensuing approximate statistical description reduced to the particle's configuration space contains a nonclassical term due to the dispersion of the momentum, which depends on the density of particles ρ(x) and thus is nonlocal. This description is shown to be equivalent to Schrödinger's equation and its complex conjugate. The nonlocal term is recognized as the so-called quantum potential, thus solving the long standing problem of the origin and meaning of this term. Further, the relationship between the Wigner function and a true Kolmogorovian probability density in phase space is discussed from the perspective provided by this theory.
Quantum nonlocality is revisited from a novel point of view by studying the problem of an originally classical particle immersed in the stochastic zero-point radiation field (zpf). The entire system is left to evolve until it reaches a state in which the radiative terms cancel each other in the mean in a first approximation. The ensuing approximate statistical description reduced to the particle's configuration space contains a nonclassical term due to the dispersion of the momentum, which depends on the density of particles ρ(x) and thus is nonlocal. This description is shown to be equivalent to Schrödinger's equation and its complex conjugate. The nonlocal term is recognized as the so-called quantum potential, thus solving the long standing problem of the origin and meaning of this term. Further, the relationship between the Wigner function and a true Kolmogorovian probability density in phase space is discussed from the perspective provided by this theory.
We study the behavior of the atomic matter immersed in a zero-point radiation field, which is taken as the source of the endless stochastic motion of electrons. The starting point is a statistical phase-space equation for a particle in interaction with the field. Under certain natural approximations, the system reaches a stationary condition; the corresponding reduced description obtained in configuration space is just the Schrodinger quantum mechanics. Quantum nonlocality is revisited from this point of view and is shown to appear as an artifact of the reduced description. The theory presented also serves to explain why usual quantum mechanics is not amenable to a phase-space formulation.
We show that the quantum wavefunction, interpreted as the probability density of finding a single non-localized quantum particle, which evolves according to classical laws of motion, is an intermediate description of a material quantum particle between the quantum and classical realms. Accordingly, classical and quantum mechanics should not be treated separately, a unified description in terms of the Wigner distribution function being possible. Although defined on classical phase space coordinates, the Wigner distribution function accommodates the nonlocalization property of quantum systems, and leads to both the Schrodinger equation for the quantum wavefunction and to the definition of position and momentum operators.
Quantization is derived as an emergent phenomenon, resulting from the permanent interaction between matter and radiation field. The starting point for the derivation is the existence of the (continuous) random zero-point electromagnetic radiation field (zpf) of mean energy ℏω/2 per normal mode. A thermodynamic and statistical analysis leads unequivocally (and without quantum assumptions) to the Planck distribution law for the complete field in equilibrium. The problem of the quantization of matter is then approached from the same perspective: A detailed study of the dynamics of a particle embedded in the zpf shows that when the entire system eventually reaches a situation of energy balance thanks to the combined effect of diffusion and dissipation, the particle has acquired its characteristic quantum properties. To obtain the quantum-mechanical description it has been necessary to do a partial averaging and take the radiationless approximation. Consideration of the neglected radiative terms allows to establish contact with nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics and derive the correct formulas for the first-order radiative corrections. Quantum mechanics emerges therefore as a partial, approximate and time-asymptotic description of a phenomenon that in its original (pre-quantum) description is entirely local and causal.
From the equation of motion for a radiating charged particle embedded in the zero-point radiation field we construct a stochastic Liouville equation which serves to derive, by a smoothing process, a Fokker–Planck-type equation with infinite memory. We show that an exact alternative form of this phase-space equation is the Schrödinger equation in configuration space, with radiative corrections. In the asymptotic, radiationless limit (when the radiative corrections became negligible), the phase-space density reduces to Wigner’s distribution, thus confirming Weyl’s rule of correspondence. We briefly discuss several other implications of stochastic electrodynamics which are relevant for quantum theory in general.
We first point out that nonrelativistic quantum mechanics formulated at imaginary time s = it can formally be recognized as the Fokker-Planck description of a classical Brownian motion, which occurs (in general) in a medium where particles are absorbed and emitted. We next offer a new formulation of quantum dynamics, which is basically the Langevin treatment of that Brownian motion. More explicitly, we derive a noise average representation of the transition probability W ( X", s"|X', s' ) in terms of the solutions to a Langevin equation with a Gaussian white noise. Upon analytic continuation back to real time W ( X", s"|X', s' ) becomes the propagator of the original Schrödinger equation, namely we have ⟨ X", t"|X', t' ⟩ = W ( X", it"|X', it' ). The main advantage of this approach is to permit a systematic application to quantum-dynamical problems of the mathematical techniques developed in the theory of classical stochastic processes, even when vector potentials and/or time-dependent potentials are present.
Since the early twentieth century, quantum mechanics has sought an interpretation that offers a consistent worldview. In the course of that, many proposals were advanced, but all of them introduce, at some point, interpretation elements (semantics) that find no correlate in the formalism (syntactics). This distance from semantics and syntactics is one of the major reasons for finding so abstruse and diverse interpretations of the formalism. To overcome this issue, we propose an alternative stochastic interpretation, based exclusively on the formal structure of the Schrödinger equation, without resorting to external assumptions such as the collapse of the wave function or the role of the observer. We present four (mathematically equivalent) mathematical derivations of the Schrödinger equation based on four constructs: characteristic function, Boltzmann entropy, Central Limit Theorem (CLT), and Langevin equation. All of them resort to axioms already interpreted and offer complementary perspectives to the quantum formalism. The results show the possibility of deriving the Schrödinger equation from well-defined probabilistic principles and that the wave function represents a probability amplitude in the configuration space, with dispersions linked to the CLT. It is concluded that quantum mechanics has a stochastic support, originating from the separation between particle and field subsystems, allowing an objective description of quantum behavior as a mean-field theory, analogous, but not equal, to Brownian motion, without the need for arbitrary ontological entities.