Complex trajectories and Feynman path integrals

Zbigniew Haba

Oleg Georgievich Smolyanov, A. G. Tokarev, Aubrey Truman

The main aim of the present paper is using a Chernoff theorem (i.e., the Chernoff formula) to formulate and to prove some rigorous results on representations for solutions of Schrödinger equations by the Hamiltonian Feynman path integrals (=Feynman integrals over trajectories in the phase space). The corresponding theorem is related to the original (Feynman) approach to Feynman path integrals over trajectories in the phase space in much the same way as the famous theorem of Nelson is related to the Feynman approach to the Feynman path integral over trajectories in the configuration space. We also give a representation for solutions of some Schrödinger equations by a series which represents an integral with respect to the complex Poisson measure on trajectories in the phase space.

Belal Ehsan Baaquie

A path , in general, is defined by a determinate trajectory in time, from an initial to a final point. The classical trajectory is only one of the possible trajectories, and in quantum mechanics all the possible paths between the initial and final point come into play. Recall that the probability amplitude is a complex number that is assigned to each determinate path. Indeterminate paths are defined as a collection of determinate paths that are experimentally indistinguishable . In the Dirac–Feynman approach, the inherent indeterminacy of the quantum entity is realized by the degree of freedom – in undergoing time evolution – “taking” indeterminate paths [Baaquie (2013e)]. For a quantum degree of freedom evolving from an observed initial state to the observed final state – and with no other observations made – the Feynman path integral is a mathematical construction that computes the probability amplitudes by summing over all the allowed determinate paths of the degree of freedom – discussed in Feynman and Hibbs (1965), Zinn-Justin (1993), Zinn-Justin (2005) and Baaquie (2013e). Probability amplitude and time evolution Recall that the description of a quantum system, at a particular instant,isgiven by its state vector, namely |ψ>. To avoid confusion with the concept of a state vector, the term probability amplitude is used for describing a quantum entity undergoing transitions in time.

Oleg Georgievich Smolyanov

The Feynman formula is a representation of the solution of an evolutionary equation by a limit of some multiple integrals over Cartesian products of the classical configuration space, or of the classical phase space, when the multiplicity of integrals tends to infinity. From the Feynman formula one can deduce the Feynman–Kac formula, i.e. a representation of the solution by an integral over trajectories. In this paper we consider representations, by the Feynman formula, of solutions both of some Schrödinger type equations and of the corresponding diffusion equations. Introduction The first of Feynman's papers [7], on what one now calls Feynman path integrals over trajectories in the configuration space, contains three main observations. Firstly, it is shown that the solution of the Cauchy problem for a Schrödinger equation can be represented by a limit of a sequence of integrals over Cartesian products of the classical configuration space when the multiplicity of integrals tends to infinity. Secondly, the limit is interpreted as an integral over trajectories in the configuration space. And finally, it is noticed that the integrand contains the exponent of the classical action. Feynman's definition of the Feynman path integrals over trajectories in the phase space, which is formulated in his second paper on the subject, has a similar structure but, in contrast to the preceding definition, the Lagrangian in the classical action is expressed through the Hamiltonian function.