Despite the importance of the path integral, there have been relatively few attempts to look to the Lagrangian for a more realistic framework that might underlie quantum theory. While such realism is not available for the standard path integral or quantum field theory, a promising alternative is to only consider field histories for which the Lagrangian density is always zero. With this change, it appears possible to replace amplitudes with equally-weighted probabilities. This paper demonstrates a proof-of-principle for this approach, using a toy Lagrangian that corresponds to an arbitrary spin state. In this restricted framework one can derive both the Born rule and its limits of applicability. The fact that the Lagrangian obeys future boundary constraints also results in the first continuous, spacetime-based, hidden-variable description of a Bell-inequality-violating system.
Despite the importance of the path integral, there have been relatively few attempts to look to the Lagrangian for a more realistic framework that might underlie quantum theory. While such realism is not available for the standard path integral or quantum field theory, a promising alternative is to only consider field histories for which the Lagrangian density is always zero. With this change, it appears possible to replace amplitudes with equally-weighted probabilities. This paper demonstrates a proof-of-principle for this approach, using a toy Lagrangian that corresponds to an arbitrary spin state. In this restricted framework one can derive both the Born rule and its limits of applicability. The fact that the Lagrangian obeys future boundary constraints also results in the first continuous, spacetime-based, hidden-variable description of a Bell-inequality-violating system.
The Feynman's path integral in space-time is closely related, via classical Lagrangian theory, to Dirac's formulation of quantum mechanics.The essential point of this approach is in making use of the Lagrangian function in space-time and Hamilton's first action principle to construct the probability amplitude in conventional quantum mechanics.This formulation has, as mentioned by Feynman, mathematical and physical incompleteness.We have investigated a part of the physical incompleteness, which can be treated by using the classical technique of eliminating ignorable.coordinates.The corresponding conjugate momenta will then provide constraint relations, which can be used to reduce the Lagrangian function and the path integral to a modified form.The paths are now restricted, via the constraint relations, to limited configuration spaces.A general modified formulation is constructed for paths in a limited space-time region.An important special case is demonstrated.In the special case, Jacobi's action principle is employed to replace Hamilton's action principle, therefore, the paths thus formulated are in space-energy rather than in space-time.
Feynman's path integrals provide a hidden variable description of quantum mechanics (and quantum field theories). The expectation values defined through path integrals obey Bell's inequalities in Euclidean time, but not in Minkowski time. This observation allows us to pinpoint the origin of violation of Bell's inequalities in quantum mechanics. % This article is not precise enough for mathematicians and not vague % enough for philosophers, but it should be interesting for physicists. % Contributed to the XVI International Symposium on Lepton-Photon % Interactions, Cornell University, August 10-15, 1993.
The conventional approach to quantum mechanics begins with the classical Hamiltonian and changes observables to noncommuting operators. Canonically conjugate observables have to be noncommuting operators in order to satisfy the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The dynamics of a quantum mechanical system is given by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In the early 1940s Feynman realized that it would be possible to construct a quantum model using the classical Lagrangian approach (a method closely related to the action integral). Dirac had earlier pointed out that eit times the Lagrangian was analogous to a transformation function for the wave function in which the wave function at one instant could be related to the wave function at a next instant in a time interval of t by multiplying with such an exponential function. Feynman found the exponential phase factor to be the action S which is the time integral of the Lagrangian. Further, he noticed that it was necessary to perform integrals over all space variables at every instant of time to find the transition amplitudes. He developed a way for describing and evaluating the integration using the idea of integral over all paths. In Feynman’s approach, the particles are described using amplitudes calculated along the paths they may or may not follow. These amplitudes behave like waves, their phase changes as the quantum system moves along the path and the amplitudes for all paths superpose and interfere. This interference between all paths is called as sum-over-histories and the resulting amplitude is connected in the same way that the amplitude of a wave function is linked to probability as magnitude-squared.
The Feynman path integral does not allow a one real path interpretation, because the quantum amplitudes contribute to probabilities in a non-separable manner. The opposite extreme, all paths happen, is not a useful or informative account. In this paper it is shown that an intermediate parsing of the path integral, into realistic non-interfering possibilities, is always available. Each realistic possibility formally corresponds to numerous particle paths, but is arguably best interpreted as a spacetime-valued field. Notably, one actual field history can always be said to occur, although it will generally not have an extremized action. The most obvious concerns with this approach are addressed, indicating necessary follow-up research. But without obvious showstoppers, it seems plausible that the path integral might be reinterpreted to explain quantum phenomena in terms of Lorentz covariant field histories. Quanta 2016; 5: 1–11.
Given the classical dynamics of a non-relativistic particle in terms of a Hamiltonian or an action, it is relatively straightforward to obtain the non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) of the system. These standard procedures, based on either the Hamiltonian or the path integral, however, do not work in the case of a relativistic particle. As a result we do not have a single-particle description of relativistic quantum mechanics (RQM). Instead, the correct approach requires a transmutation of dynamical variables from the position and momentum of a single particle to a field and its canonical momentum. Particles, along with antiparticles , reappear in a very nontrivial manner as the excitations of the field. The fact that one needs to adopt completely different languages to describe a relativistic and non-relativistic free particle implies that obtaining the NRQM limit of QFT is conceptually nontrivial. I examine this limit in several approaches (like, for e.g., Hamiltonian dynamics, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian path integrals, field theoretic description etc.) and identify the precise issues which arise when one attempts to obtain the NRQM from QFT in each of these approaches. The dichotomy of NRQM and QFT does not originate just from the square root in the Hamiltonian or from the demand of Lorentz invariance, as is sometimes claimed. The real difficulty has its origin in the necessary existence of antiparticles to ensure a particular notion of relativistic causality. Because of these conceptual issues, it turns out that one cannot , in fact, obtain some of the popular descriptions of NRQM by any sensible limiting procedure applied to QFT. To obtain NRQM from QFT in a seamless manner, it is necessary to work with NRQM expressed in a language closer to that of QFT. This fact has several implications, especially for the operational notion of space coordinates in quantum theory. A close examination of these issues, which arise when quantum theory is combined with special relativity, could offer insights in the context of attempts to combine quantum theory with general relativity.
The path integral approach to quantum mechanics provides a method of quantization of dynamical systems directly from the Lagrange formalism. In field theory the method presents some advantages over Hamiltonian quantization. The Lagrange formalism preserves relativistic covariance which makes the Feynman method very convenient to achieve the renormalization of field theories both in perturbative and non-perturbative approaches. However, when the systems are confined in bounded domains we shall show that the path integral approach does not describe the most general type of boundary conditions. Highly non-local boundary conditions cannot be described by Feynman's approach. We analyse in this note the origin of this problem in quantum mechanics and its implications for field theory.