Quantum mechanics derived from stochastic electrodynamics

L. de la Peña-Auerbach, Ana Marı́a Cetto

M. Surdin

L. de la Peña-Auerbach, Ana Marı́a Cetto

Steven M. Moore

Luis de la Peña, Ana Marı́a Cetto

During the last decades there has been a relatively extensive attempt to develop the theory of stochastic electrodynamics (SED) with a view to establishing it as the foundation for quantum mechanics. The theory had several important successes, but failed when applied to the study of particles subject to nonlinear forces. An analysis of the failure showed that its reasons are not to be ascribed to the principles of SED, but to the methods used to construct the theory, particularly the use of a Fokker-Planck approximation and perturbation theory. A new, non perturbative approach has been developed, called linear stochastic electrodynamics (LSED), of which a clean form is presented here. After introducing the fundamentals of SED, we discuss in detail the principles on which LSED is constructed. We pay attention to the fundamental issue of the mechanism that leads to the quantum behaviour of field and matter, and demonstrate that indeed LSED is a natural way to the quantum formalism by demanding its solutions to comply with a limited number of principles, each one with a clear physical meaning. As a further application of the principles of LSED we derive also the Planck distribution. In a final section we revisit some of the most tantalizing quandaries of quantum mechanics from the point of view offered by the present theory, and show that it offers a clear physical answer to them.

Emilio Santos

I propose that quantum mechanics is a stochastic theory and quantum phenomena derive from the existence of real vacuum stochastic fields filling space. I revisit stochastic electrodynamics (SED), a theory that studies classical systems of electrically charged particles immersed in an electromagnetic (zeropoint) radiation field with spectral density proportional to the cube of the frequency, Planck's constant appearing as the parameter fixing the scale. Asides from briefly reviewing known results, I make a detailed comparison between SED and quantum mechanics. Both theories make the same predictions when the stochastic equations of motion are of first order in Planck constant, but not in general. I propose that SED provides a clue for a realistic interpretation of quantum theory.