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Journal de physique

A reformulation of Schrödinger and Dirac equations in terms of observable local densities and electromagnetic fields : a step towards a new interpretation of quantum mechanics ?

J. des Cloizeaux

Published Jan 1, 1983• 48 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that the Schrödinger equation, the 3-dimensional Dirac equation and the 4-dimensional Dirac equation can be transformed so as to eliminate all phase and gauge effects. Real local densities are defined and it is shown that these tensors obey real « probabilistic equations » which are equivalent to the equations of quantum mechanics. These new equations, which are explicitly constructed, involve only local densities and the external electromagnetic field. New boundary conditions are also derived. The Aharonov-Bohm experiment is reinterpreted in the framework of this new formalism.

DOI
10.1051/jphys:01983004408088500

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•Jan 16, 2026•0 citations
It is shown that the Schrödinger equation, the 3-dimensional Dirac equation and the 4-dimensional Dirac equation can be transformed so as to eliminate all phase and gauge effects. Real local densities are defined and it is shown that these tensors obey real « probabilistic equations » which are equivalent to the equations of quantum mechanics. These new equations, which are explicitly constructed, involve only local densities and the external electromagnetic field. New boundary conditions are also derived. The Aharonov-Bohm experiment is reinterpreted in the framework of this new formalism.
We extend the framework of Unified Quantum Mechanics (UQM) to the relativistic domain by formulating the Dirac equation entirely in terms of real-valued fields. In this approach, the complex imaginary unit iii is systematically replaced by the temporal Hilbert transform operator Ht\mathcal{H}_{t}Ht​, which satisfies the anti-involution property Ht2=−I\mathcal{H}_{t}^{2}=-\mathcal{I}Ht2​=−I and acts as a dimensionless isometric operator. The resulting theory is expressed as a coupled system of real-valued equations for a primary field ψ\psiψ and its Hilbert-transformed partner ϕ=Ht[ψ]\phi=\mathcal{H}_{t}[\psi]ϕ=Ht​[ψ], whose evolution is governed exclusively by local differential operators. We demonstrate that all essential algebraic and symmetry structures of relativistic quantum mechanics are preserved within this real-valued formulation. In particular, the full Clifford algebra of the Dirac matrices, Lorentz covariance, and the relativistic energy-momentum relation are recovered exactly. A rigorous isomorphism with the conventional complex Dirac equation is established via the analytic signal representation ψa=ψ−iϕ\psi_{a}=\psi-i\phiψa​=ψ−iϕ, under which the standard U(1)U(1)U(1) gauge symmetry emerges naturally as a global SO(2)SO(2)SO(2) rotation in the real field space. The resulting formulation is therefore operationally and predictively equivalent to the standard complex theory. The conserved scalar density ρ=ψ†ψ+ϕ†ϕ=∣ψa∣2\rho=\psi^{\dagger}\psi+\phi^{\dagger}\phi=|\psi_{a}|^{2}ρ=ψ†ψ+ϕ†ϕ=∣ψa​∣2 is shown to arise as the squared envelope (intensity) of a real physical field and admits a direct interpretation as a local field intensity with well-defined physical dimensions. Probability conservation is recovered through the continuity equation, while normalization in standard quantum mechanics is reinterpreted as a rescaling by the conserved total field. Stability of matter, expressed as energy positivity, is shown to restrict the physical solution space to analytic signals, enforcing a Hilbert-pair structure and eliminating independent complex degrees of freedom. This work demonstrates that the complex structure of relativistic quantum mechanics is not fundamental but emerges from the analytically constrained dynamics of real-valued fields, providing a unified and physically transparent foundation for the Dirac theory.
The article contains a review and new results of some mathematical models relevant to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and emulating well-known quantum gauge theories, such as scalar electrodynamics (Klein–Gordon–Maxwell electrodynamics), spinor electrodynamics (Dirac–Maxwell electrodynamics), etc. In these models, evolution is typically described by modified Maxwell equations. In the case of scalar electrodynamics, the scalar complex wave function can be made real by a gauge transformation, the wave function can be algebraically eliminated from the equations of scalar electrodynamics, and the resulting modified Maxwell equations describe the independent evolution of the electromagnetic field. Similar results were obtained for spinor electrodynamics. Three out of four components of the Dirac spinor can be algebraically eliminated from the Dirac equation, and the remaining component can be made real by a gauge transformation. A similar result was obtained for the Dirac equation in the Yang–Mills field. As quantum gauge theories play a central role in modern physics, the approach of this article may be sufficiently general. One-particle wave functions can be modeled as plasma-like collections of a large number of particles and antiparticles. This seems to enable the simulation of quantum phase-space distribution functions, such as the Wigner distribution function, which are not necessarily non-negative.
The wave function of quantum mechanics is not a boost invariant and gauge invariant quantity. Correspondingly, reference frame dependence and gauge dependence are inherited to most of the elements of the usual formulation of quantum mechanics (including operators, states and events). If a frame dependent and gauge dependent formalism is called, in short, a relative formalism, then the aim of the paper is to establish an absolute, i.e., frame and gauge free, reformulation of quantum mechanics. To fulfil this aim, we develop absolute quantities and the corresponding equations instead of the wave function and the Schrödinger equation. The absolute quantities have a more direct physical interpretation than the wave function has, and the corresponding equations express explicitly the independent physical aspects of the system which are contained in the Schrödinger equation in a mixed and more hidden form. Based on the absolute quantities and equations, events, states and physical quantities are introduced also in an absolute way. The formalism makes it possible to obtain some sharper versions of the uncertainty relation and to extend the validity of Ehrenfest's theorem. The absolute formulation allows wide extensions of quantum mechanics. To give examples, we discuss two known nonlinear extensions and, in close detail, a dissipative system. An argument is provided that the absolute formalism may lead to an explanation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect purely in terms of the electromagnetic field strength tensor. At last, on special relativistic and curved spacetimes, absolute quantities and equations instead of the Klein-Gordon wave function and equation are given, and their nonrelativistic limit is derived.
An important milestone in quantum physics has been reachedby the publication of the Relativistic Quantum MechanicalDirac Equation in 1928. However, the Dirac equationrepresents a 1-Dimensional quantum mechanical equationwhich is unable to describe the 4-Dimensional PhysicalReality.In this article the 4-Dimensional Relativistic QuantumMechanical Dirac Equation expressed in the vectorprobability functions  and the complex conjugated vectorprobability function  *will be published. To realize this, theclassical boundaries of physics has to be changed. It isnecessary to go back in time 300 years ago. More than 200years ago before the Dirac Equation had been published.A Return to the Inception of Physics. The time of IsaacNewton who published in 1687 in the “PhilosophiaeNaturalis Principia Mathematica” a Universal FundamentalPrinciple in Physics which was in Harmony with Science andReligion. The Universal Path, the Leitmotiv, the UniversalConcept in Physics. Newton found the concept of “UniversalEquilibrium” which he formulated in his famous thirdequation Action = - Reaction. This article presents a New Kind of Physics based on this Universal Fundamental Concept in Physics which results in a New Approach in Quantum Physics and General Relativity.The physical concept of quantum mechanical probability waves has been created during the famous 1927 5th Solvay Conference. During that period there were several circumstances which came together and made it possible to create an unique idea of material waves being complex (partly real and partly imaginary) and describing the probability of the appearance of a physical object (elementary particle). The idea of complex probability waves was new in the beginning of the 20th century. Since then the New Concept has been protected carefully within the Copenhagen Interpretation. When Schrödinger published his famous material wave equation in 1926, he found spherical and elliptical solutions for the presence of the electron within the atom. The first idea of the material waves in Schrödinger’s wave equation was the concept of confined Electromagnetic Waves. But according to Maxwell this was impossible. According to Maxwell’s equations Electromagnetic Waves can only propagate along straight lines and it is impossible that Light (Electromagnetic Waves) could confine with the surface of a sphere or an ellipse. For that reason these material waves in Schrödinger’s wave equation could only be of a different origin than Electromagnetic Waves. Niels Bohr introduced the concept of “Probability Waves” as the origin of the material waves in Schrödinger’s wave equation. And defined the New Concept that the electron was still a particle but the physical presence of the electron in the Atom was equally divided by a spherical probability function.In the New Theory it will be demonstrated that because of a mistake in the Maxwell Equations, in 1927 Confined Electromagnetic waves could not be considered to be the material waves expressed in Schrödinger's wave equation. The New Theory presents a new equation describing electromagnetic field configurations which are also solutions of the Schrodinger's wave equation and the relativistic quantum mechanical Dirac Equation and carry mass, electric charge and magnetic spin at discrete values.
The formalism of quantum mechanics is presented in a way that its interpretation as a classical field theory is emphasized. Two coupled real fields are defined with given equations of motion. Densities and currents associated to the fields are found with their corresponding conserved quantities. The behavior of these quantities under a galilean transformation suggest the association of the fields with a quantum mechanical free particle. An external potential is introduced in the Lagrange formalism. The description is equivalent to the conventional Schrödinger equation treatment of a particle. We discuss the attempts to build an interpretation of quantum mechanics based on this scheme. The fields become the primary onthology of the theory and the particles appear as emergent properties of the fields. These interpretations face serious problems for systems with many degrees of freedom.
Physical processes are usually described using four-dimensional vector quantities - coordinate vector, momentum vector, current vector. But at the fundamental level they are characterized by spinors - coordinate spinors, momentum spinors, spinor wave functions. The propagation of fields and their interaction takes place at the spinor level, and since each spinor uniquely corresponds to a certain vector, the results of physical processes appear before us in vector form. For example, the relativistic Schrödinger equation and the Dirac equation are formulated by means of coordinate vectors, momentum vectors and quantum operators corresponding to them. In the Dirac equation a step forward is taken and the wave function is a spinor with complex components, but still coordinates and momentum are vectors. For a closed description of nature using only spinor quantities, it is necessary to have an equation similar to the Dirac equation in which momentum, coordinates and operators are spinors. It is such an equation that is presented in this paper. Using the example of the interaction between an electron and an electromagnetic field, we can see that the spinor equation contains more detailed information about the interaction than the vector equations. This is not new for quantum mechanics, since it describes interactions using complex wave functions, which cannot be observed directly, and only when measured goes to probabilities in the form of squares of the moduli of the wave functions. In the same way spinor quantities are not observable, but they completely determine observable vectors. In Section 2 of the paper, we analyze the quadratic form for an arbitrary four-component complex vector based on Pauli matrices. The form is invariant with respect to Lorentz transformations including any rotations and boosts. The invariance of the form allows us to construct on its basis an equation for a free particle combining the properties of the relativistic wave equation and the Dirac equation. For an electron in the presence of an electromagnetic potential it is shown that taking into account the commutation relations between the momentum and coordinate components allows us to obtain from this equation the known results describing the interactions of the electron spin with the electric and magnetic field. In the presence of a potential the momentum components cease to commute with each other. To neutralize this effect, the Schrödinger equation is supplemented by several equations with mixed partial derivatives on coordinates. In section 3 of the paper this quadratic form is expressed through momentum spinors, which makes it possible to obtain an equation for the spinor wave function in spinor coordinate space by replacing the momentum spinor components by partial derivative operators on the corresponding coordinate spinor component. Section 4 presents a modification of the theory of the path integral, which consists in considering the path integral in the spinor coordinate space. The Lagrangian densities for the scalar field and for the electron field, along with their corresponding propagators, are presented. An equation of motion for the electron is proposed that is relativistically invariant, in contrast to the Dirac equation, which lacks this invariance. This novel equation permitted the construction of an actually invariant procedure for the second quantization of the fermion field in spinor coordinate space. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the field operators are a combination of plane waves in spinor or vector space, with the coefficients of which being pseudospinors or pseudovectors. Each of these pseudovectors or pseudospinors corresponds to one of the particles presented in the theory of electrodynamics. Furthermore, each plane wave possesses an additional coefficient in the form of a creation or annihilation operator. In vector space, these operators commute, whereas in spinor space they anticommutate. The paper presents the spinor and vector representations of the field operators in explicit form, comprising sets of 16 pseudospinors or 4 pseudovectors corresponding to particles represented in electrodynamics. An explicit form of the symmetric traceless tensor with spin two, zero mass and two polarizations is presented, which can serve as a model of the graviton. The results obtained may prompt changes in some aspects of the construction of Feynman diagrams. Among other things, it presents a purely mathematical derivation of Maxwell's inhomogeneous equations without reference to empirical data on the action of electric current, which is usually referred to when deriving equations. Section 4 presents Einstein's inhomogeneous equation, which features the Riemann tensor rather than the Ricci tensor, with the energy-momentum tensor having four indices rather than two.