A PROPOSED MEASURE FOR THE INFORMATION CONTENT IN QUANTUM FIELDS.

Daniel Schutzer

Published Aug 17, 1965• 0 citations

Abstract

Under the present formulation of Quantum Mechanics, there exists a vacuum energy. The function describing an elementary particle, the field function, has random fluctuations superimposed upon it. An existence information measure is proposed to describe the information contained in a particle field. Existence information is the uncertainty in making the decision that a particle field exists, in light of the vacuum fluctuation effect. Relationships between the existence information and basic intuitive ideas of information theory are brought out. Connections are shown between Shannon's formulation of information theory, Wigner's skew information measure, and the proposed, existence information. Plausibility arguments for the appropriateness of existence information as the representation of field information are presented. Interactions between particles, and the self-interference of a particle is discussed and related to distinguishability, choice, correlation and existence information. Electromagnetic scattering is discussed and is associated with the coherence between the two particles vacuum fluctuations. Existence information is calculated and studied as a function of measurements and interactions. The total existence information content of an isolated system, (possibly interacting internally) is found to be independent of time. (Author)

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