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Physical Review Letters

Relativistic Extension of the Analogy between Quantum Mechanics and Brownian Motion

Bernard Gaveau, Ted Jacobson A, Mark Kac, Lawrence S. Schulman

Published Jul 30, 1984• 246 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Schr\"odinger's equation and the heat equation are connected to one another by analytic continuation, as are the Feynman integral and the Wiener integral. We extend this form of correspondence to the relativistic domain by identifying Poisson processes whose real version gives rise to the telegrapher's equation and which when analytically continued produce the Dirac equation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.53.419

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Schr"odinger's equation and the heat equation are connected to one another by analytic continuation, as are the Feynman integral and the Wiener integral. We extend this form of correspondence to the relativistic domain by identifying Poisson processes whose real version gives rise to the telegrapher's equation and which when analytically continued produce the Dirac equation.
where m is the particle mass at rest, c is the speed of light, p is the particle momentum and U is a potential. The root in Eq. (1) complicates substantially the way of quantizing the relativistic motion. In the literature there are two important solutions of this problem: the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. Their complex mathematical structures and some problems with definition of the probability density make it difficult to extend these equations for description of relativistic quantum Brownian motion. Moreover, it is not clear if the non-relativistic energy ˆ t E i   and momentum p i   operators, used in quantizing of Eq. (1), are valid in the relativistic quantum mechanics as well. The present paper proposes an alternative approach via a relativistic Wigner-Klein-Kramers equation. The quantum Brownian motion is described by the Madelung quantum hydrodynamics [4] coupled to the Breit-Fermi Hamiltonian. According to the relativistic dynamics the stochastic Langevin equation for a classical relativistic particle moving in a classical non-relativistic environment acquires the form
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.
Quantum mechanics appears to contain ghosts from both classical statistical mechanics and special relativity. On one hand, both the Dirac and Schrödinger equations have classical analogs that emerge directly from classical statistical mechanics, unimpeded by major problems of interpretation. On the other hand, the formal analytic continuation that takes these classical equations to the quantum version introduces a velocity dependent phase. However, among classical theories, only in relativistic mechanics does one find path-dependent phase in the form of relativistic time dilation. This paper explores the idea that if we start with statistical mechanics and special relativity we can discover a version of the quantum algorithm and show that at least some of the resulting ghosts are direct descendants of those connected with the birth of the differential calculus.
We give a Hilbert space picture of a novel probabilistic interpretation of the classical heat equation, realizing an idea of Schrodinger. By this we also obtain an Euclidean version of non relativistic Quantum Mechanics, distinct from the one obtained using the Feynman-Kac formula On donne une version hilbertienne d'une nouvelle interpretation probabiliste de l'equation classique de la chaleur, ce qui realise une idee de Schrodinger. On obtient une version euclidienne de la mecanique quantique non relativiste distincte de celle obtenue par la formule de Feynman-Kac
In Feynman's space-time approach to nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the wave function may be considered to be the sum of path integrals over Brownian-motion trajectories. This formalism is entirely equivalent to the Schr\"odinger-equation treatment with its intrinsic indeterminacy. Pursuing the analogy with Brownian motion further, one may introduce a hidden variable corresponding to particle velocity in order to represent the wave function as a sum of path integrals taken over phase-space trajectories. By means of a hidden parameter corresponding to the time scale of fictitious interactions of the particle with the vacuum, one can define generalized propagators which over very short times produce wave functions which are localizable in phase space and hence are deterministic. For long times the conventional Feynman formalism is recovered. This short-time causality does not violate the von Neumann injunction against hidden variables since the new velocity variable turns out to be non-Hermitian over the long time scales normally considered. In contrast to the models proposed by Bohm and others, the present Brownian model is linear and preserves the usual statistical interpretation of the wave function for sufficiently long times.