Abstract Linear response theory is concerned with the way in which a physical system reacts to a small change in the applied forces. Here we show that quantum mechanics in the Heisenberg representation can be understood as a linear response theory. To this effect, we first address the question of the physical origin of the quantum operator formalism by considering the interaction of a bound electron with the radiation field, including the zero-point component, following the approach of stochastic electrodynamics. Once the electron has reached a stationary state, it responds linearly and resonantly to a set of modes of the driving radiation field. Such a response can lead the system to a new stationary state. Identifying a one-to-one relationship between the response variables and the corresponding operators results in the ( x,p ) commutator as the Poisson bracket of these variables with respect to the driving field amplitudes. To account for the order of the response variables, which is reflected in the non-commutativity of the operators, we introduce the concept of ordered covariance. The results obtained allow to establish a natural contact with linear response theory at the fundamental quantum level.
Abstract Linear response theory is concerned with the way in which a physical system reacts to a small change in the applied forces. Here we show that quantum mechanics in the Heisenberg representation can be understood as a linear response theory. To this effect, we first address the question of the physical origin of the quantum operator formalism by considering the interaction of a bound electron with the radiation field, including the zero-point component, following the approach of stochastic electrodynamics. Once the electron has reached a stationary state, it responds linearly and resonantly to a set of modes of the driving radiation field. Such a response can lead the system to a new stationary state. Identifying a one-to-one relationship between the response variables and the corresponding operators results in the ( x,p ) commutator as the Poisson bracket of these variables with respect to the driving field amplitudes. To account for the order of the response variables, which is reflected in the non-commutativity of the operators, we introduce the concept of ordered covariance. The results obtained allow to establish a natural contact with linear response theory at the fundamental quantum level.
Abstract We show that the electromagnetic radiation field, conventionally introduced as a perturbation in quantum mechanics, is actually at the basis of the operator formalism. We first analyze the linear resonant response of the (continuous) variables x(t), p(t) of a harmonic oscillator to the full radiation field, i.e. the zero-point field plus an applied field playing the role of the driving force, and then extend the analysis to the response of a charged particle bound by a non-linear force, typically an atomic electron. This leads to the establishment of a one-to-one correspondence between the response functions and the respective quantum operators, and to the identification of the quantum commutator with the Poisson bracket of the response functions with respect to the normalized variables of the driving field. To complete the quantum description, a similar procedure is used to obtain the field operators as the response functions to the same normalized variables. The results allow us to draw important conclusions about the physical content of the quantum formalism, in particular about the meaning of the quantum expectation values and the coarse-grained nature of the quantum-mechanical description.
In this chapter, which covers part of the course given at ELAF, a straight-forward procedure is presented that leads from the basic postulates of stochastic electrodynamics to the usual formalism of quantum theory. The theory thus developed is called linear stochastic electrodynamics, to underline that one of its basic features is the (asymptotic) linear response of atomic systems to the background field. The chapter starts with a brief discussion of some open questions in quantum theory and of the possibility to find an answer to them by resorting to the zeropoint radiation field as the source of the quantum behavior of matter. The basic properties of this field are discussed, and a brief enumeration is made of some of the positive results and vital shortcomings of standard stochastic electrodynamics. After identifying the source of these shortcomings in the assumption that the background field is not altered by its interaction with matter, linear stochastic electrodynamics is developed and shown to lead, under certain approximations, to a consistent picture of both matter and field quantization. In the concluding part, it is shown that also the electron spin can be considered to be generated by the interaction of the particle with the zeropoint field; in particular, the two-valuedness of the spin projection is associated with the existence of just two independent states of polarization of the field.
Abstract Linear response theory is a general formalism applicable to any physical system slightly departing from equilibrium. It allows us to express the linear response functions and the generalized susceptibilities in terms of the equilibrium correlation functions of the relevant dynamical variables. For instance, in the case of the response to an applied external field, one of the two relevant dynamical variables represents the physical quantity conjugate to the field whereas the other represents the physical quantity whose out-of-equilibrium average is measured. The computation of the linear response functions relies on a first-order perturbation expansion of the density operator (or of the phase space distribution function) of the system coupled to the field. The expressions thus obtained constitute the Kubo formulas of linear response theory.
Abstract The new quantum mechanics could at first be used to answer questions concerning radiation only through analogies with the classical theory. In Heisenberg’s original matrix theory, for instance, it is assumed that the matrix elements of the polarisation of an atom determine the emission and absorption of radiation analogously to the Fourier components in the classical theory. In more recent theories a certain expression for the electric density obtained from the quantum mechanics is used to determine the emitted radiation by the same formulæ as in the classical theory. These methods give satisfactory results in many cases, but cannot even be applied to problems where the classical analogies are obscure or non-existent, such as resonance radiation and the breadths of spectral lines. A theory of radiation has been given by the author which rests on a more definite basis. It appears that one can treat a field of radiation as a dynamical system, whose interaction with an ordinary atomic system may be described by a Hamiltonian function. The dynamical variables specifying the field are the energies and phases of its various harmonic conrponents, each of which is effectively a simple harmonic oscillator. One must, of course, in the quantum theory take these variables to be q-numbers satisfying the proper quantum conditions. One finds then that the Hamiltonian for the interaction of the field with an atom is of the same form as that for the interaction of an assembly of light-quanta with the atom. There is thus a complete formal reconciliation between the wave and light-quantum points of view.
The origin of the new quantum mechanics was an epoch-making memoir by Werner Heisenberg which contained the new concept which was to lead to the phenomenal developments of quantum mechanics of the past two years. Up to this time the quantum theory (the ‘older’ quantum theory) postulated the existence of stationary states of the atom calculated by the use of the classical mechanics and selected by the use of quantum conditions satisfied by the action variables of that theory. In the new mechanics the equations have the same form as in the classical theory, but the variables no longer satisfy the commutative law of multiplication, that is, xy is not in general equal to yx ; the quantum conditions of the older theory are replaced by equations which enable the difference xy – yx to be calculated; these equations involve Planck's constant h. For some years before 1925, Sommerfeld, Heisenberg, Landé and Pauli had been grappling with the complex problem of the multiplets and their Zeeman separations. By the use of a system of quantum numbers l, s, j connected with the respective angular momenta of the series electron, the core, and the whole atom, they had given a qualitative account of the multiplets of the alkalis, alkaline earths, etc., the work culminating in a very general empirical formula—the g -formula of Landé—which enabled the Zeeman separations of a multiplet to be worked out quantitatively in terms of the quantum numbers l, s, j.
A new way of arriving at the quantum formalism is presented, based on the recognition of the reality of the random zero-point radiation field (ZPF). The quantization of both matter and radiation field is shown to emerge as a result of the permanent interaction of matter with the ZPF. Quantum mechanics (QM) is obtained both in its Schrödinger and its Heisenberg version, under certain well-defined conditions and approximations. The theory provides for an explanation of the origin of entanglement. Further, the same physical elements and hypotheses allow us to cross the doorway and go beyond QM, to the realm of (nonrelativistic) quantum electrodynamics (QED).