We formulate a theory of the Brownian motion for particle ensembles, whose diffusive evolution is entirely generated by the surrounding random environment. By demanding the validity of the momentum conservation law on all conceivable scales adopted for the investigation of individual particle scattering (collisions) on the medium constituents, we are forced to incorporate the environmental recoil effects in the formalism. The Brownian recoil principle elevates the individually negligible phenomena to the momentum conservation law on the ensemble average. The resultant dynamics of the statistical ensemble is governed by the Schr\"odinger equation, once the diffusion constant D is identified with \ensuremath{\Elzxh}/2m.
We formulate a theory of the Brownian motion for particle ensembles, whose diffusive evolution is entirely generated by the surrounding random environment. By demanding the validity of the momentum conservation law on all conceivable scales adopted for the investigation of individual particle scattering (collisions) on the medium constituents, we are forced to incorporate the environmental recoil effects in the formalism. The Brownian recoil principle elevates the individually negligible phenomena to the momentum conservation law on the ensemble average. The resultant dynamics of the statistical ensemble is governed by the Schr"odinger equation, once the diffusion constant D is identified with \ensuremath{\Elzxh}/2m.
The dynamics and kinematics of reciprocal diffusions were examined in a previous paper [J. Math. Phys. 34, 1846 (1993)], where it was shown that reciprocal diffusions admit a chain of conservation laws, which close after the first two laws for two disjoint subclasses of reciprocal diffusions, the Markov and quantum diffusions. For the case of quantum diffusions, the conservation laws are equivalent to Schrödinger’s equation. The Markov diffusions were employed by Schrödinger [Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Phys. Math Kl. 144 (1931); Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré 2, 269 (1932)], Nelson [Dynamical Theories of Brownian Motion (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1967); Quantum Fluctuations (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1985)], and other researchers to develop stochastic formulations of quantum mechanics, called stochastic mechanics. We propose here an alternative version of stochastic mechanics based on quantum diffusions. A procedure is presented for constructing the quantum diffusion associated to a given wave function. It is shown that quantum diffusions satisfy the uncertainty principle, and have a locality property, whereby given two dynamically uncoupled but statistically correlated particles, the marginal statistics of each particle depend only on the local fields to which the particle is subjected. However, like Wigner’s joint probability distribution for the position and momentum of a particle, the finite joint probability densities of quantum diffusions may take negative values.
The Schrödinger free particle equation in 1+1 dimension describes second-order effects in ensembles of lattice random walks, in addition to its role in quantum mechanics, and its solutions represent the continuous limit of a property of ensembles of Brownian particles. In the present paper, the classical Schrödinger and Dirac equations have been derived from the Brownian motions of a particle, and it has been shown that the classical Schrödinger equation can be transformed into the usual Schrödinger quantum equation on applying the Heisenberg uncertainty principle between position and momentum, while the Dirac quantum equation follows from its classical counterpart on applying the Heisenberg uncertainty principle between energy and time, without applying any analytical continuation.
The connection between the Schrödinger equation and Einstein's diffusion theory based on the Brownian motion of independent particles is well known. However, in contrast to diffusion theory, quantum mechanics theory has suffered controversial interpretations due to the counterintuitive concept of wavefunction. Here, while we confirm there is no difference in the mathematical form of these two equations, we derive the imaginary version of displacement. Using the diffusion theory of particles in a medium, as simple as it is, we describe that quantum mechanics is just an elegant and subtle equation to describe the probability of all the trajectories that a particle can take to propagate in time by a predictive wavefunction. Therefore, information on the position of particles through time in quantum theory is embedded in the wavefunction, which predicts the evolution of an ensemble of individual Brownian particles.
We examine the hypothesis that every particle of mass m is subject to a Brownian motion with diffusion coefficient $\frac{\ensuremath{\hbar}}{2m}$ and no friction. The influence of an external field is expressed by means of Newton's law F=ma, as in the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck theory of macroscopic Brownian motion with friction. The hypothesis leads in a natural way to the Schr\"odinger equation, but the physical interpretation is entirely classical. Particles have continuous trajectories and the wave function is not a complete description of the state. Despite this opposition to quantum mechanics, an examination of the measurement process suggests that, within a limited framework, the two theories are equivalent.
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.
The Brownian motion of a particle coupled to a heat bath can be derived from an exactly solvable many-body system. This motion is governed by the Langevin equation in Newtonian mechanics, and by an operator equation formally identical to the Langevin equation when the system composed of the particle plus the heat bath is quantized. To get this formal similarity between the classical and the quantal equations of motion of the particle, the classical dissipative system is formulated in terms of a modified Hamilton–Jacobi equation and is then quantized using the Schrödinger method. The result is identical with the Schrödinger–Langevin equation that has been obtained by quantizing the entire system and then isolating the motion of the particle. The non-linear wave equation describing the motion of a particle subject to conservative and time-dependent forces as well as frictional forces has been applied to the problems of motion of a wave-packet, and of the scattering and trapping of heavy-ions.