The master equation for dichotomous diffusion (DD) (the integral of a random telegraph process) is the well-known telegrapher's equation, which is converted to the Klein–Gordon equation by a simple transformation. After a brief recapitulation of the solution and of the analogy between DD and the Dirac equation in one spatial dimension, we consider velocity -biased DD. The corresponding master equation and its solution are presented. It is shown that these may be interpreted physically in terms of a Lorentz transformation to a frame moving with a boost velocity equal to the mean drift velocity of the diffusing particle. The modifications that arise in the connection with the Dirac equation are also exhibited. The correspondence between the rest mass of the Dirac particle and the frequency of direction reversal in the DD is shown to be modified precisely by the time dilatation correction to the latter quantity.
The master equation for dichotomous diffusion (DD) (the integral of a random telegraph process) is the well-known telegrapher's equation, which is converted to the Klein–Gordon equation by a simple transformation. After a brief recapitulation of the solution and of the analogy between DD and the Dirac equation in one spatial dimension, we consider velocity -biased DD. The corresponding master equation and its solution are presented. It is shown that these may be interpreted physically in terms of a Lorentz transformation to a frame moving with a boost velocity equal to the mean drift velocity of the diffusing particle. The modifications that arise in the connection with the Dirac equation are also exhibited. The correspondence between the rest mass of the Dirac particle and the frequency of direction reversal in the DD is shown to be modified precisely by the time dilatation correction to the latter quantity.
Abstract The transformation from a time-dependent random walk to quantum mechanics converts a modified Bessel function into an ordinary one together with a phase factor e,ir/2 for each time the electron flips both direction and handedness. Causality requires the argument to be greater than the order of the Bessel function. Assuming equal probabilities for jumps ± 1 , the normalized modified Bessel function of an imaginary argument is the solution of the finite difference differential Schrödinger equation whereas the same function of a real argument satisfies the diffusion equation. In the nonrelativistic limit, the stability condition of the difference scheme contains the mass whereas in the ultrarelativistic limit only the velocity of light appears. Particle waves in the nonrelativistic limit become elastic waves in the ultrarelativistic limit with a phase shift in the frequency and wave number of 7r/2. The ordinary Bessel function satisfies a second order recurrence relation which is a finite difference differential wave equation, using non-nearest neighbors, whose solutions are the chirality components of a free-particle in the zero fermion mass limit. Reintroducing the mass by a phase transformation transforms the wave equation into the Klein-Gordon equation but does not admit a solution in terms of ordinary Bessel functions. However, a sign change of the mass term permits a solution in terms of a modified Bessel function whose recurrence formulas produce all the results of special relativity. The Lorentz transformation maximizes the integral of the modified Bessel function and determines the paths of steepest descent in the classical limit. If the definitions of frequency and wave number in terms of the phase were used in special relativity, the condition that the frame be inertial would equate the superluminal phase velocity with the particle velocity in violation of causality. In order to get surfaces of constant phase to move at the group velocity, an integrating factor is required which determines how the intensity decays in time. The phase correlation between neighboring sites in quantum mechanics is given by the phase factor for the electron to reverse its direction, whereas, in special relativity, it is given by the Doppler shift.
Given a positive energy solution of the Klein–Gordon equation, the motion of the free, spinless, relativistic particle is described in a fixed Lorentz frame by a Markov diffusion process with nonconstant diffusion coefficient. Proper time is an increasing stochastic process and we derive a probabilistic generalization of the equation (dτ)2=−(1/c2)dXν dXν. A random time-change transformation provides the bridge between the t and the τ domain. In the τ domain, we obtain an M4-valued Markov process with singular and constant diffusion coefficient. The square modulus of the Klein–Gordon solution is an invariant, nonintegrable density for this Markov process. It satisfies a relativistically covariant continuity equation.
We consider the motion of a classical particle in (1+1)-dimensional space-time. Four probability distributions govern the trajectory of the particle; these give the probability of moving to the left or right in space while moving backwards or forwards in time. If these probabilities are randomly distributed and if the probability of moving backwards in time is related to the probability of moving forwards in time in a prescribed manner, then the master equations for these probabilities give rise to the Dirac equation without recourse to direct analytic continuation. In contrast, when a particle always moves forward in time, an analytic continuation is required to recover the Dirac equation.
In this chapter, we investigate the Dirac equation, which is named after P. A. M. Dirac, who is one of the fathers of quantum field theory. The Dirac equation is a relativistic quantum mechanical wave equation for spin-1/2 particles (e.g. electrons), which was derived by Dirac in 1928. The difficulties in finding a consistent single-particle theory from the Klein–Gordon equation led Dirac to search for an equation that had a positive-definite conserved probability density and was first order both in time and space. One can show that these two conditions imply that a matrix equation is required. The reason why the Klein–Gordon equation did not yield a positive-definite probability density is connected with the second-order time derivative in this equation, which arises because the Klein–Gordon equation is related to the relativistic energy–momentum relation E 2 = m 2 + p 2 via the correspondence principle that includes a term E 2 . Thus, a ‘better’ Lorentz covariant wave equation with a positive-definite probability density should have a first-order time derivative only. However, the equivalence of time and space coordinates in Minkowski space requires that such an equation also have only first-order space derivatives.
In this note, a one-dimensional system composed of an assembly of interacting particles, is considered. Each particle in the assembly moves in a well-defined trajectory on a line with a velocity of fixed magnitude, which randomly reverses direction. The intrinsic forces in the system are assumed to induce stochastic transitions between velocity states in such a way that the average dynamics of the assembly is Newtonian. It is shown that there is a close analogy between collective oscillations in the model system and the propagation of a free quantum particle in one dimension.
Abstract Two models are first presented, of a one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) with temporal noise on the internal degree of freedom (i.e., the coin): (i) a model with both a coin-flip and a phase-flip channel, and (ii) a model with random coin unitaries. It is then shown that both these models admit a common limit in the spacetime continuum, namely, a Lindblad equation with Dirac-fermion Hamiltonian part and, as Lindblad jumps, a chirality flip and a chirality-dependent phase flip, which are two of the three standard error channels for a two-level quantum system. This, as one may call it, Dirac Lindblad equation, provides a model of quantum relativistic spatial diffusion, which is evidenced both analytically and numerically. This model of spatial diffusion has the intriguing specificity of making sense only with original unitary models which are relativistic in the sense that they have chirality, on which the noise is introduced: the diffusion arises via the by-construction (quantum) coupling of chirality to the position. For a particle with vanishing mass, the model of quantum relativistic diffusion introduced in the present work, reduces to the well-known telegraph equation, which yields propagation at short times, diffusion at long times, and exhibits no quantumness. Finally, the results are extended to temporal noises which depend smoothly on position.