The historical Klein-Gordon transformation of complex-valued first-order in time Schroedinger equations iterates these in a naively straightforward way which changes them into complex-valued second-order in time equations that have a plethora of extraneous solutions -- the transformation is an operator-calculus analogue of the squaring of both sides of an algebraic equation. The real and imaginary parts of a Schroedinger equation, however, are well known to be precisely the dynamical equation pair of the real-valued classical Hamiltonian functional which is numerically equal to the expectation value of that Schroedinger equation's Hermitian Hamiltonian operator. The purely real-valued second-order in time Euler-Lagrange equation of the corresponding classical Lagrangian functional is also isomorphic to that Schroedinger equation, and for symmetric Hamiltonians has exactly the same formal appearance as the corresponding naive complex-valued Klein-Gordon equation, but none of the latter's extraneous solutions. These quantum Schroedinger-equation isomorphisms to classical Euler-Lagrange equations are the technical manifestation of a key theoretical aspect of the principle of complementarity, one which is elegantly illustrated by the isomorphic free-photon wave-function complement to the vector potential of source-free classical electrodynamics.
The historical Klein-Gordon transformation of complex-valued first-order in time Schroedinger equations iterates these in a naively straightforward way which changes them into complex-valued second-order in time equations that have a plethora of extraneous solutions -- the transformation is an operator-calculus analogue of the squaring of both sides of an algebraic equation. The real and imaginary parts of a Schroedinger equation, however, are well known to be precisely the dynamical equation pair of the real-valued classical Hamiltonian functional which is numerically equal to the expectation value of that Schroedinger equation's Hermitian Hamiltonian operator. The purely real-valued second-order in time Euler-Lagrange equation of the corresponding classical Lagrangian functional is also isomorphic to that Schroedinger equation, and for symmetric Hamiltonians has exactly the same formal appearance as the corresponding naive complex-valued Klein-Gordon equation, but none of the latter's extraneous solutions. These quantum Schroedinger-equation isomorphisms to classical Euler-Lagrange equations are the technical manifestation of a key theoretical aspect of the principle of complementarity, one which is elegantly illustrated by the isomorphic free-photon wave-function complement to the vector potential of source-free classical electrodynamics.
It has recently been shown that the classical electric and magnetic fields which satisfy the source-free Maxwell equations can be linearly mapped into the real and imaginary parts of a transverse-vector wave function which in consequence satisfies the time-dependent Schroedinger equation whose Hamiltonian operator is physically appropriate to the free photon. The free-particle Klein-Gordon equation for scalar fields modestly extends the classical wave equation via a mass term. It is physically untenable for complex-valued wave functions, but has a sound nonnegative conserved-energy functional when it is restricted to real-valued classical fields. Canonical Hamiltonization and a further canonical transformation maps the real-valued classical Klein-Gordon field and its canonical conjugate into the real and imaginary parts of a scalar wave function (within a constant factor) which in consequence satisfies the time-dependent Schroedinger equation whose Hamiltonian operator has the natural correspondence-principle relativistic square-root form for a free particle, with a mass that matches the Klein-Gordon field theory's mass term. Quantization of the real-valued classical Klein-Gordon field is thus second quantization of this natural correspondence-principle first-quantized relativistic Schroedinger equation. Source-free electromagnetism is treated in a parallel manner, but with the classical scalar Klein-Gordon field replaced by a transverse vector potential that satisfies the classical wave equation. This reproduces the previous first-quantized results that were based on Maxwell's source-free electric and magnetic field equations.
This tutorial begins with the relationship of source-free classical electromagnetism to ultra-relativistic free-photon quantum mechanics. The linear transformation of the source-free classical-electromagnetic real-valued transverse vector potential to its corresponding free-photon Schroedinger-equation complex-valued transverse vector wave function is obtained. It is then pointed out that despite the free-photon Klein-Gordon equation's being formally identical to the source-free classical-electromagnetic vector-potential wave equation, it yields not only free-photon Schroedinger-equation wave functions but also their complex conjugates, which don't satisfy the free-photon Schroedinger equation. This is a consequence of admitting complex-valued solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation -- of course only its real-valued solutions apply to the classical vector potential. It is pointed out that solutions of the free-particle Dirac equation likewise occur in conjugate pairs, and that its Hamiltonian operator implies a variety of unphysical consequences, e.g., any Dirac free particle's speed is that of light times the square root of three.
Solitary-particle quantum mechanics' inherent compatibility with special relativity is implicit in Schroedinger's postulated wave-function rule for the operator quantization of the particle's canonical three-momentum, taken together with his famed time-dependent wave-function equation that analogously treats the operator quantization of its Hamiltonian. The resulting formally four-vector equation system assures proper relativistic covariance for any solitary-particle Hamiltonian operator which, together with its canonical three-momentum operator, is a Lorentz-covariant four-vector operator. This, of course, is always the case for the quantization of the Hamiltonian of a properly relativistic classical theory, so the strong correspondence principle definitely remains valid in the relativistic domain. Klein-Gordon theory impairs this four-vector equation by iterating and contracting it, thereby injecting extraneous negative-energy solutions that are not orthogonal to their positive-energy counterparts of the same momentum, thus destroying the basis of the quantum probability interpretation. Klein-Gordon theory, which thus depends on the square of the Hamiltonian operator, is as well thereby cut adrift from Heisenberg's equations of motion. Dirac theory confuses the space-time symmetry of the four-vector equation system with such symmetry for its time component alone, which it fatuously imposes, thereby breaching the strong correspondence principle for the free particle and imposing the starkly unphysical momentum-independence of velocity. Physically sensible alternatives, with external electromagnetic fields, to the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations are derived, and the simple, elegant symmetry-based approach to antiparticles is pointed out.
The Schroedinger- and Klein-Gordon equations are directly derived from classical Lagrangians. The only inputs are given by the discreteness of energy (E=hbar.w) and momentum (p=hbar.k), respectively, as well as the assumed existence of a space-pervading field of "zero-point energy" (E_0=hbar.w/2 per spatial dimension) associated to each particle of energy E. The latter leads to an additional kinetic energy term in the classical Lagrangian, which alone suffices to pass from classical to quantum mechanics. Moreover, Heisenberg's uncertainty relations are also derived within this framework, i.e., without referring to quantum mechanical or other complex-numbered functions.
In the first part of this series we have shown how the Schrodinger equation for a single particle and the corresponding non relativistic quantum observables can be obtained from a purely classical phonon model through the Newtonian equations of motion. In this work we focus instead on how the classical Hamiltonian formalism applied to the same phonon system allows to recover the feature of relativistic quantum mechanics for a single spinless particle. Using the classical nature of the phonon model, we naturally define continuous Poisson brackets between classical observables, which allows to recover the dynamics of such observables, i.e. the Ehrenfest relations associated to real-valued Klein-Gordon fields. The Poisson brackets also permits to obtain the generic form of constants of motions, thus generalizing the concept of inner products and momentum on Klein-Gordon fields. We then connect the formalism of real-valued classical functionals with that of hermitian operators and complex-valued wave functions. This is done through the introduction of a non-local complex-valued change of variables which allows to rewrite the real-valued Klein-Gordon equation in a form akin to the Schrodinger equation, and the classical observables as quantum expectation values. Then, we show how this change of variables allows to rewrite the classical Poisson brackets as commutators of hermitian operators. This points out the strict equivalence between the Heisenberg formalism and the formalism of classical Poisson bracket. Eventually, we illustrate how the Poisson brackets allows to recover the transformations of Poincare group in 1+1 dimension together with its algebra. The latter makes the link between the Lorentz invariant inner product of Mostafazadeh and the Casimir invariant associated to the mass of particle.
The time-dependent Schroedinger equation with time-independent Hamiltonian matrix is a homogeneous linear oscillatory system in canonical form. We investigate whether any classical system that itself is linear, homogeneous, oscillatory and conservative is guaranteed to linearly map into a Schroedinger equation. Such oscillatory classical systems can be analyzed into their normal modes, which are mutually independent, uncoupled simple harmonic oscillators, and the equation of motion of such a system linearly maps into a Schroedinger equation whose Hamiltonian matrix is diagonal, with h times the individual simple harmonic oscillator frequencies as its diagonal entries. Therefore if the coupling-strength matrix of such an oscillatory system is presented in symmetric, positive-definite form, the Hamiltonian matrix of the Schroedinger equation it maps into is h times the square root of that coupling-strength matrix. We obtain a general expression for mapping this type of oscillatory classical equation of motion into a Schroedinger equation, and apply it to the real-valued classical Klein-Gordon equation and the source-free Maxwell equations, which results in relativistic Hamiltonian operators that are strictly compatible with the correspondence principle. Once such an oscillatory classical system has been mapped into a Schroedinger equation, it is automatically in canonical form, making second quantization of that Schroedinger equation a technically simple as well as a physically very interpretable way to quantize the original classical system.