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American Journal of Physics

Dimensions of relativistic quantum mechanical paths

F. Cannata, L. Ferrari

Published Aug 1, 1988• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The notion of the dimension of a relativistic quantum mechanical path is illustrated. An elementary introduction to the concept of a fractal curve allows the discussion of the evolution of the quantum mechanical wave packet for free particles in terms of Hausdorff dimensions of quantum ‘‘trajectories.’’ The results of a previous work by Abbott and Wise can be generalized to relativistic quantum mechanics of spin-1/2 particles in the Foldy–Wouthuysen representation. A further extension to spin-zero particles is briefly outlined. By simple considerations, an understanding of the notion of a Hausdorff dimension and its values can be introduced.

DOI
10.1119/1.15508

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The notion of the dimension of a relativistic quantum mechanical path is illustrated. An elementary introduction to the concept of a fractal curve allows the discussion of the evolution of the quantum mechanical wave packet for free particles in terms of Hausdorff dimensions of quantum ‘‘trajectories.’’ The results of a previous work by Abbott and Wise can be generalized to relativistic quantum mechanics of spin-1/2 particles in the Foldy–Wouthuysen representation. A further extension to spin-zero particles is briefly outlined. By simple considerations, an understanding of the notion of a Hausdorff dimension and its values can be introduced.
We obtain an explicit expression relating the writhing number, W[C]W[C]W[C], of the quantum path, CCC, with any value of spin, sss, of the particle which sweeps out that closed curve. We consider a fractal approach to the fractional spin particles and, in this way, we make clear a deeper connection between the Gauss-Bonnet theorem with the spin-statistics relation via the concept of Hausdorff dimension, hhh, associated to the fractal quantum curves of the particles: \frac{h}{2+2s}=W[C]=\frac{1}{4π}\oint_{C}d x_α\oint_{C}d x_β ε^{αβγ} \frac{(x-y)_γ}{|x-y|^3}.
A new application of a fractal concept to quantum physics has been developed. The fractional path integrals over the paths of the Levy flights are defined. It is shown that if fractality of the Brownian trajectories leads to standard quantum mechanics, then the fractality of the Levy paths leads to fractional quantum mechanics. The fractional quantum mechanics has been developed via the new fractional path integrals approach. A fractional generalization of the Schrodinger equation has been discovered. The new relationship between the energy and the momentum of the nonrelativistic fractional quantum-mechanical particle has been established, and the Levy wave packet has been introduced into quantum mechanics. The equation for the fractional plane wave function has been found. We have derived a free particle quantum-mechanical kernel using Fox's H-function. A fractional generalization of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation has been found. As physical applications of the fractional quantum mechanics we have studied a free particle in a square infinite potential well, the fractional "Bohr atom" and have developed a new fractional approach to the QCD problem of quarkonium. We also discuss the relationships between fractional and the well-known Feynman path integral approaches to quantum mechanics. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.
The properties of an ideal gas of spinless particles are investigated by using the path integral formalism. It is shown that the quantum paths exhibit a fractal character which remains unchanged in the relativistic domain provided the creation of new particles is avoided, and the Brownian motion remains the stochastic process associated with the quantum paths. These results are obtained by using a special representation of the Klein-Gordon wave equation. On the quantum paths the relation between velocity and momentum is not the usual one. The mean square value of the velocity depends on the time needed to define the velocity and its value shows the interplay between pure quantum effects and thermodynamics. The fractal character is also investigated starting from wave equations by analyzing the evolution of a Gaussian wave packet via the Hausdorff dimension. Both approaches give the same fractal character in the same limit. It is shown that the time that appears in the path integral behaves like an ordinary time, and the key quantity is the time interval needed for the thermostat to give to the particles a thermal action equal to the quantum of action. Thus, the partition function calculated via the path integral formalism also describes the dynamics of the system for short time intervals. For low temperatures, it is shown that a time-energy uncertainty relation is verified at the end of the calculations. The energy involved in this relation has not a thermodynamic meaning but results from the fact that the particles do not follow the equations of motion along the paths. The results suggest that the density matrix obtained by quantification of the classical canonical distribution function via the path integral formalism should not be totally identical to that obtained via the usual route.
We develop the relativistic quantum mechanics of particles with fractional spin and statistics in 2 + 1 dimensions in the path-integral approach. We endow the elementary excitations of the theory with fractional spin through the coupling of the particle number current with a topological term. We work out the dynamics of the spin degrees of freedom, and display the relation between the spin action and the knot invariants of the paths contributing to the path integral. We show that the explicit spin-changing interaction can be traded for multivaluedness of the wave function, and we relate this to the representation theory of the Lorentz and Poincaré groups in 2 + 1 dimensions. We discuss the multiparticle dynamics and derive the spin–statistics theorem.