General relativity is logically unsatisfactory because it bases measurement on infinitesimals, and absolute infinitesimals do not exist. A standard of comparison being a logical necessity, we propose to provide it by the new fundamental hypothesis; "The physical world is composed of elementary events of identical and definite non-zero four-dimensional extent." The photon is a possibility of absorption-event initiated by an emission event; it is exhibited as a set of superposed moving volumes or three-dimensional sections of the four-dimensional possibility. The electron is a possibility transmitted with smaller velocities. Mass or energy is proportional to the time-duration of the event-possibilities, and obeys thence, the relativity rules. A wave function is postulated for the possibility being realized, and from Doppler's principle the quantum rule necessarily follows: mass proportional to frequency, and groupvelocity equal to particle velocity. The "particle" exists only when the transmission is parallel the time-edge of the possibility; in atomic orbits presumably the condition does not apply, and the parallel-displacement tracks of relativity which are shown to to be required outside, do not apply within the atom. The finite extent of the events which exhibit the particle necessitates an indeterminacy in the situation of the particle.
General relativity is logically unsatisfactory because it bases measurement on infinitesimals, and absolute infinitesimals do not exist. A standard of comparison being a logical necessity, we propose to provide it by the new fundamental hypothesis; "The physical world is composed of elementary events of identical and definite non-zero four-dimensional extent." The photon is a possibility of absorption-event initiated by an emission event; it is exhibited as a set of superposed moving volumes or three-dimensional sections of the four-dimensional possibility. The electron is a possibility transmitted with smaller velocities. Mass or energy is proportional to the time-duration of the event-possibilities, and obeys thence, the relativity rules. A wave function is postulated for the possibility being realized, and from Doppler's principle the quantum rule necessarily follows: mass proportional to frequency, and groupvelocity equal to particle velocity. The "particle" exists only when the transmission is parallel the time-edge of the possibility; in atomic orbits presumably the condition does not apply, and the parallel-displacement tracks of relativity which are shown to to be required outside, do not apply within the atom. The finite extent of the events which exhibit the particle necessitates an indeterminacy in the situation of the particle.
The theory is based on a new hypothesis on the nature of matter. This hypothesis is that the elementary particles, atoms, and molecules we have found in nature are not part of the real world, but constitute information about the real world. They are the wave components of a generalized Fourier analysis of our observations (which in the final analysis are always space-time distributions of photon- or particle-counter clicks). This Fourier analysis should be so general that every observation can be expressed in its terms; it thereby becomes axiomatic. Physicists of past generations, with their sound instincts, were intuitively approaching this most general and most powerful possible analysis of our observations. With the discovery of quantum mechanics, this development had advanced so far that the precise formulation of this ultimate analysis could be guessed. The model which can guide us to this mathematical formulation is that of an ideal optical observation on a physical object. This observation is made by illuminating the object with a finite number of laser beams of known amplitude and phase, and observing the amplitude and phase of the finite number of light beams emerging from the object space. The assumption that this is all the information we can ever obtain about the object leads to a wave function of the object which consists of light waves, extrapolated from the photon detectors back to the object space. It is suggested that these light waves should be presented as a product of amplitudes in a 4n-dimensional space, where n is the number of light quanta in the signal. Most important, force, or interaction, can then be described as a linear transformation in this space. The actual mathematical formalism proposed on the basis of that model is Xf=dtitdf. X is the Hamiltonian of the whole universe with ${n}_{0}\ensuremath{\cong}{10}^{80}$ particles. It is a $4{n}_{0}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4{n}_{0}$ linear matrix operator. f is a 4n0-component vector wave function representing waves traveling at the speed of light. The coordinates are the homogeneous coordinates (xj,yj,zj,uj) of the n0 particles in the closed universe. The eigenvalue $\ensuremath{\omega}$, in $Xf=\ensuremath{\omega}f$, is a $4{n}_{0}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4{n}_{0}$ Hermitian matrix. It can be divided into ${n}_{0}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{n}_{0}$, 4 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} 4 submatrices, each representing a complete set of dynamic and inertial quantities of elementary particles, or interaction quanta between particles. $\frac{\mathrm{it}df}{\mathrm{dt}}=\ensuremath{\omega}f$ is therefore a complete expression of the dynamic conservation laws. A special orthogonal transformation ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{0}$ transforms the solution into a standard solution with eigenvalue ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$, representing n0 identical elementary particles. The assumption that the universe is of maximum probability then leads to simple explicit expressions for all matrix elements of ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$. This means that the energy levels of all n-particle systems (atoms or molecules) of the theory can be directly calculated. The equations demand relations between cosmological constants and atomic constants. In a universe of the size and mass of our observed universe, the elementary particle would have to be the size of the proton.
A type of mechanics will be presented that possesses some distinctive properties. On the one hand, its physical description & rules of operation are readily comprehensible & intuitively clear. On the other, it fully satisfies all observable predictions of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Within it, particles exist at points in space, follow continuous, piecewise differentiable paths, and their linear momentum is equal to their mass times their velocity along their path. Yet the probabilities for position and momentum, conditioned on the state of the particle's environment, follow the rules of quantum theory. Indeed, all observable consequences of quantum theory are satisfied; particles can be entangled, have intrinsic spin, this spin is not local to the particle, particle identity can effect probabilities, and so forth. All the rules of quantum mechanics are obeyed, and all arise in a straightforward fashion. After this is established, connections will be drawn out between this type of mechanics and other types of quantum worlds; those that obey Bohmian mechanics, stochastic mechanics, the many worlds interpretation, and physical collapse. In the final section, a relativistic version of the mechanics will be presented.
Abstract 1. There are two problems which are fundamental to wave mechanics— that of deducing from first principles the properties of the wave field of ψ, by means of which, on modern theory, the mechanical properties of matter are to be described, and that of formulating a logical description of the properties of matter in terms of ψ. The former only of these problems is discussed in this communication. In spite of many valuable papers that have been published on the subject of Dirac’s remarkable wave equation, the derivation of the equation still seemed (to the present writer, at any rate,) to include some obscurities which could perhaps be removed. To some extent this is owing to the development of the equation, as a matter of historical necessity, having come about by successive extensions to classical mechanics; so that some difficulties have been produced by the fundamental relativity considerations having been introduced into the theory at a late stage, instead of in their proper place at the beginning. In what follows, by treating the problem from the beginning as a four-dimensional one, a deduction of the wave equation free from empirical steps is, I think, obtained, while also certain new features of the equation are brought to light. 2. The Principle of Action.—The method of four-dimensional mechanics is to assume that the motions of bodies in the world can be represented by “tracks,” or curved lines, in a “fourfold.” (This last term will be used here to mean a four-dimensional manifold with Euclidian geometry, i. e., in which ds2 = dxi2 (i = 1, . . . 4).) (1) Uniform motion in the world is represented by straight line tracks in the fourfold, and the “classical relativity” laws of motion are derived by formulating the simplest mathematical specification of curved tracks which will represent the non-uniform motions of bodies that are usually observed in the world.
The physics of special relativity is applied to a wave-packet model of a particle without the usual de Broglie-like assumption of Planck's rule, E = hv. The velocity of the particle is equated to the group-velocity of the wave-packet to associate the particle with its wave-packet. With such an identification it is demonstrated using special relativity that the momentum four-vector, P = [p, E/c2] of the particle is parallel and proportional to a central wave-number four-vector, K0 = [k0. ω0/c2], of the particle's wave-packet. The constant of proportionality, relating these two four-vectors, has the dimension of action and by diffraction experiments it has the value h/2π where h is Planck's constant. This refinement of the de Broglie wave-like nature of a particle suggests that special relativity underlies quantum physics more deeply than heretofore believed. The above quantum rules are used to find the wave-packet function in the one-dimensional case of a non-relativistic free particle and a particle in a conservative force field of potential V (x). This wave-packet function is shown to satisfy an integral time-evolution equation which relates the wave function at time t0 to the function at a slightly later time t. The resulting integral equation is equivalent to the propagator equation or path-integral hypothesised by Feynman. This fact also demonstrates, using the method of Feynman, that the wave-packet function satisfies Schrödinger's partial differential equation. The wave-packet function of a particle in a force field is directly shown to satisfy a linear integral equation which relates the wave-packet at one instant of time to its values at all later times. The kernel or propagator of this integral equation is also equivalent to Feynman's path integral. A computation demonstrates that the position of a moving particle in a simple quadratic potential well does not become more uncertain with the passage of time. This contrasts with the behaviour of a moving free particle which as a function of time becomes more and more difficult to accurately locate.
1.1 Waves and particles in quantum mechanics In spite of the fact that the extraordinary progress of experimental techniques make us able to manipulate at will systems made of any small and well defined number of atoms, electrons and photons making therefore possible the actual performance of the gedankenexperimente that Einstein and Bohr had imagined to support their opposite views on the physical properties of the wavelike/particlelike objects (quantons) of the quantum world it does not seem that, after more than eighty years, a unanimous consensus has been reached in the physicist's community on how to understand their strange properties. Unfortunately, we cannot know whether Feynman would still insist in maintaining his famous sentence It is fair to say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. We can only discuss if, almost thirty years after his death, some progress towards this goal has been made. I believe that this is the case. I will show in fact that, by following the suggestions of Feynman himself, some clarification of the old puzzles can be achieved. This chapter therefore by no means is intended to provide an impartial review of the present status of the question but is focused on the exposure of the results of more than twenty years of research of my group in Rome, which in my opinion provide a possible way of connecting together at the same time the random nature of the events at the atomic level of reality and the completeness of their probabilistic representation by the principles of Quantum Mechanics.