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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Causal interpretation of quantum mechanics: The Schrodinger equation as a condition of stability

Nina B. Sotina

Published Jun 1, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This work presents a further development of causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. Existence of ‘non-local hidden variables’ like a physical field is taken as an assumption. Under this assumption, on the basis of the causal approach it is proven that Schrödinger equation is a necessary condition for stability of the motion of a particle. For the case of a hydrogen atom this approach gives a mathematical base with which to suggest that (1) the electron’s spin in an atom is precessing; (2) the energy of the precessional motion on Bohr orbits satisfies the Rydberg formula, and (3) structures are formed in the physical vacuum which stabilize the motion of an electron on Bohr orbits.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/1251/1/012046

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Abstract This work presents a further development of causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. Existence of ‘non-local hidden variables’ like a physical field is taken as an assumption. Under this assumption, on the basis of the causal approach it is proven that Schrödinger equation is a necessary condition for stability of the motion of a particle. For the case of a hydrogen atom this approach gives a mathematical base with which to suggest that (1) the electron’s spin in an atom is precessing; (2) the energy of the precessional motion on Bohr orbits satisfies the Rydberg formula, and (3) structures are formed in the physical vacuum which stabilize the motion of an electron on Bohr orbits.
The de Broglie-Bohm causal interpretation of quantum mechanics is discussed, and applied to the hydrogen atom in several contexts. Prominent critiques of the causal program are noted and responses are given; it is argued that the de Broglie-Bohm theory is of notable interest to physics. Using the causal theory, electron trajectories are found for the conventional Schrödinger, Pauli and Dirac hydrogen eigenstates. In the Schrödinger case, an additional term is used to account for the spin; this term was not present in the original formulation of the theory but is necessary for the theory to be embedded in a relativistic formulation. In the Schrödinger, Pauli and Dirac cases, the eigenstate trajectories are shown to be circular, with electron motion revolving around the z-axis. Electron trajectories are also found for the 1s-2p0 transition problem under the Schrödinger equation; it is shown that the transition can be characterized by a comparison of the trajectory to the relevant eigenstate trajectories. The structures of the computed trajectories are relevant to the question of the possible evolution of a quantum distribution towards the standard quantum distribution (quantum equilibrium); this process is known as quantum relaxation. The transition problem is generalized to include all possible transitions in hydrogen stimulated by semi-classical radiation, and all of the trajectories found are examined in light of their implications for the evolution of the distribution to the standard distribution. Several promising avenues for future research are discussed.
The initial purpose is to add two physical origins for the outstandingly clear mathematical description that Dirac has left in his Principles of Quantum Mechanics. The first is the “internal motion” in the wave function of the electron that is now expressed through dispersion dynamics; the second is the physical origin for mathematical quantization. Bohr’s model for the hydrogen atom was “the greatest single step in the development of the theory of atomic structure.” It leads to the Schrodinger equation which is non-relativistic, but which conveniently equates together momentum and electrostatic potential in a representation containing mixed powers. Firstly, we show how the equation is expansible to approximate relativistic form by applying solutions for the dilation of time in special relativity, and for the contraction of space. The adaptation is to invariant “harmonic events” that are digitally quantized. Secondly, the internal motion of the electron is described by a stable wave packet that implies wave-particle duality. The duality includes uncertainty that is precisely described with some variance from Heisenberg’s axiomatic limit. Harmonic orbital wave functions are self-constructive. This is the physical origin of quantization.
Schrodinger’s equation is a basic mathematical expression for a single particle in quantum mechanics. However, its physical meaning has never been assigned in any standard quantum mechanics text book. Here, a detailed complete re-derivation of hidden variable equation in David Bohm’s 1952 papers is given to assign some physical meanings to Schrodinger’s equation. This work shows some required detailed transformation of Schrodinger’s Equation into a form of Newtonian second law of motion with definite trajectory with some initial conditions given. All the quantum effects come from the single localized term called the quantum potential.
Abstract It is well known that the experimental facts of atomic physics necessitate a departure from the classical theory of electrodynamics in the description of atomic phenomena. This departure takes the form, in Bohr’s theory, of the special assumptions of the existence of stationary states of an atom, in which it does not radiate, and of certain rules, called quantum conditions, which fix the stationary states and the frequencies of the radiation emitted during transitions between them. These assumptions are quite foreign to the classical theory, but have been very successful in the interpretation of a restricted region of atomic phenomena. The only way in which the classical theory is used is through the assumption that the classical laws hold for the description of the motion in the stationary states, although they fail completely during transitions, and the assumption, called the Correspondence Principle, that the classical theory gives the right results in the limiting case when the action per cycle of the system is large compared to Planck’s constant h, and in certain other special cases. In a recent paper Heisenberg puts forward a new theory, which suggests that it is not the equations of classical mechanics that are in any way at fault, but that the mathematical operations by which physical results are deduced from them require modification. All the information supplied by the classical theory can thus be made use of in the new theory.
Niels Bohr’s model of the hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms, in which the electron is allowed to revolve in certain circular orbits around the nucleus, was extended by Arnold Sommerfeld to allow for the possibility of elliptical orbits. Each elliptical orbit was constrained by two quantization conditions specified by a positive integer nφ and a non-negative integer nr. If, in the presence of the attractive Coulomb force between the electron and the nucleus, the dynamics of the atom were taken to be governed by the Newtonian laws of motion, the energy Ɛ of the two-particle system was found to be a function of the positive integer n = nr + nφ. The atomic energy levels thus exhibited an n-fold degeneracy, which would be lifted in the presence of external electric or magnetic fields, thus accounting for the fine-structure of the spectral lines emitted by the atom—phenomena observed, respectively, in the Stark effect and the Zeeman effect. Sommerfeld also examined the behavior of his elliptical orbits by allowing the revolving electron to obey Einstein’s relativistic dynamics. In this case, the energy-level degeneracies were lifted (even in the absence of external perturbations), and the elliptical orbits were found to precess around the nucleus—similarly to the precession of, say, the orbit of the planet Mercury around the Sun. What is astonishing about Sommerfeld’s relativistic expression of the energy Ɛ as a function of nφ and nr is that it is precisely the same expression as obtained for hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms from Dirac’s equation, which came more than a decade later. Recall that the spin of the electron was not yet discovered when Sommerfeld developed his model, and that in Dirac’s fully-relativistic quantum mechanics, the spectral fine-structure arises from the coupling of the electron’s spin to its orbital motion. The present paper provides a streamlined yet detailed account of Sommerfeld’s elliptical orbits in hopes of bringing about a deeper appreciation for the miraculous coincidence of Sommerfeld’s result with that derived from Dirac’s equation.