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arXiv:2006.07468 · American Journal of Physics

Dirac's classical-quantum analogy for the harmonic oscillator: Classical aspects in thermal radiation including zero-point radiation

Timothy H. Boyer

Published Jul 21, 2020• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Dirac's Poisson-bracket-to-commutator analogy for the transition from classical to quantum mechanics assures that for many systems, the classical and quantum systems share the same algebraic structure. The quantum side of the analogy (involving operators on Hilbert space with commutators scaled by Planck's constant ℏ) not only gives the algebraic structure but also dictates the average values of physical quantities in the quantum ground state. On the other hand, the Poisson brackets of nonrelativistic mechanics, which give only the classical canonical transformations, do not give any values for physical quantities. Rather, one must go outside nonrelativistic classical mechanics in order to obtain a fundamental phase space distribution for classical physics. We assume that the values of physical quantities in classical theory at any temperature depend on the phase space probability distribution that arises from thermal radiation equilibrium including classical zero-point radiation with the scale set by Planck's constant ℏ. All mechanical systems in thermal radiation will inherit the constant ℏ from thermal radiation. Here, we note the connections between classical and quantum theories (agreement and contrasts) at all temperatures for the harmonic oscillator in one and three spatial dimensions.

DOI
10.1119/10.0001406

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Dirac's Poisson-bracket-to-commutator analogy for the transition from classical to quantum mechanics assures that for many systems, the classical and quantum systems share the same algebraic structure. The quantum side of the analogy (involving operators on Hilbert space with commutators scaled by Planck's constant ℏ) not only gives the algebraic structure but also dictates the average values of physical quantities in the quantum ground state. On the other hand, the Poisson brackets of nonrelativistic mechanics, which give only the classical canonical transformations, do not give any values for physical quantities. Rather, one must go outside nonrelativistic classical mechanics in order to obtain a fundamental phase space distribution for classical physics. We assume that the values of physical quantities in classical theory at any temperature depend on the phase space probability distribution that arises from thermal radiation equilibrium including classical zero-point radiation with the scale set by Planck's constant ℏ. All mechanical systems in thermal radiation will inherit the constant ℏ from thermal radiation. Here, we note the connections between classical and quantum theories (agreement and contrasts) at all temperatures for the harmonic oscillator in one and three spatial dimensions.
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.
We apply the theory of stochastic electrodynamics to the study of the (nonrelativistic) harmonic oscillator by using the Fokker–Planck method. It is demonstrated that the equilibrium distribution in phase space is exactly equal to that given by quantum statistical mechanics, i.e., the corresponding Wigner distribution, and that analysis of this distribution by means of a decomposition in terms of canonical densities leads automatically to the usual description of quantum mechanics in terms of excited states. All fundamental equations of quantum mechanics are recovered as aprproximations to zero order in the radiation terms; the first-order terms lead to the radiative corrections predicted by quantum electrodynamics, namely, the decay of states and the Lamb shift of the energy levels. The necessary differences between both treatments of the oscillator and their implications are briefly discussed.
Abstract Students encounter harmonic-oscillator models in many aspects of basic physics, within widely varying theoretical contexts. Here we highlight the interconnections and varying points of view. We start with the classical mechanics of masses coupled by springs and trace how the same essential systems are reanalysed in the unretarded van der Waals interactions between dipole oscillators within classical and quantum theories. We note how classical-mechanical ideas from kinetic theory lead to energy equipartition which determines the high-temperature van der Waals forces of atoms and molecules modelled as dipole oscillators. In this case, colliding heat-bath particles can be regarded as providing local hidden variables for the statistical mechanical behaviour of the oscillators. Next we note how relativistic classical electrodynamical ideas conflict with the assumptions of nonrelativistic classical statistical mechanics. Classical electrodynamics which includes classical zero-point radiation leads to van der Waals forces between dipole oscillators, and these classical forces agree at all temperatures with the forces derived from quantum theory. However, the classical theory providing this agreement is not a local theory, but rather a non-local hidden-variables theory. The classical theory can be regarded as involving hidden variables in the random phases of the plane waves spreading throughout space which provide the source-free random radiation.
Relations between Hamiltonian mechanics and quantum mechanics are studied. It is stressed that classical mechanics possesses all the specific features of quantum theory: operators, complex variables, probabilities (in case of ergodic systems). The Planck constant and the Fock space appear after putting a dynamical system in a thermal bath. For harmonic oscillator in a thermal bath, the probability amplitudes can be identified with the complex valued phase functions f(q+ip)f(q+ip)f(q+ip) describing small deviations from the equilibrium state, when the time of relaxation is large. A chain of such oscillators models both the one-dimensional space (or string), and one-dimensional quantum field theory.
The common structure of the space of pure states ℘ of a classical or a quantum mechanical system is that of a Poisson space with a transition probability. This is a topological space equipped with a Poisson structure, as well as with a function p:℘×℘→[0,1], with certain properties. The Poisson structure is connected with the transition probabilities through unitarity (in a specific formulation intrinsic to the given context). In classical mechanics, where p(ρ,σ)=δρσ, unitarity poses no restriction on the Poisson structure. Quantum mechanics is characterized by a specific (complex Hilbert space) form of p, and by the property that the irreducible components of ℘ as a transition probability space coincide with the symplectic leaves of ℘ as a Poisson space. In conjunction, these stipulations determine the Poisson structure of quantum mechanics up to a multiplicative constant (identified with Planck's constant). Motivated by E. M. Alfsen, H. Hanche-Olsen and F. W. Shultz (Acta Math.144 (1980) 267–305) and F.W. Shultz (Commun. Math. Phys.82 (1982) 497–509), we give axioms guaranteeing that ℘ is the space of pure states of a unital C*-algebra. We give an explicit construction of this algebra from ℘.
We derive a classical Schrodinger type equation from the classical Liouville equation in phase space. The derivation is based on a Wigner type Fourier transform of the classical phase space probability distribution, which depends on an arbitrary constant ααα with dimension of action. In order to achieve this goal two requirements are necessary: 1) It is assumed that the classical probability amplitude Ψ(x,t)Ψ(x,t)Ψ(x,t) can be expanded in a complete set of functions Φn(x)Φ_n(x)Φn​(x) defined in the configuration space; 2) the classical phase space distribution W(x,p,t)W(x,p,t)W(x,p,t) obeys the Liouville equation and is a real function of the position, the momentum and the time. We show that the constant ααα appearing in the Fourier transform of the classical phase space distribution, and also in the classical Schrodinger type equation, has its origin in the spectral distribution of the vacuum zero-point radiation, and is identified with the Planck's constant ℏ\hbarℏ.