The stochastic approach to quantum mechanics

Mikio Namiki, Satoshi Tanaka

Ramabhadra Vasudevan, Kanniyappan Parthasarathy, Ravishankar Ramanathan

Preface / Forward / Acknowledgements / Introduction / Invitation to Stochastic Calculus / Hydrodynamical Formulation of Quantum Mechanics / Stochastic Diffusion Processes / Selected Problems in Stochastic Mechanics / Stochastic Variational Principles / Euclidean Quantum Mechanics / Stochastic Path Space Picture / Relativistic Stochastic Mechanics / Dirac Equation - Stochastic Viewpoint / Stochastic Field Theory / Stochastic Mechanics on Manifolds / Stochastic Route to Quantum Mechanics - Quest Continues / References / Author Index / Subject Index.

Mikio Namiki

Ying Oon Tan

Previously [2004, AIP Conf. Proc., 750, 361], we considered a stochastic mechanics in the form of a stochastic differential equation mdxdt = μ(t) where μ(t) is a stochastic process defined by the set of Bohmian momentum time histories from an ensemble of particles. In this paper, we consider another stochastic differential equation d2xdt2 = 1m[−dV(x)dx + ζ(t)] where the stochastic force ζ(t) is a stochastic process defined by the set of quantum force time histories from an ensemble of particles. We show that, if the stochastic process is a purely random process characterized by an n‐th order joint probability density in the form of products of delta functions, then the stochastic mechanics with the stochastic force ζ(t) is equivalent to quantum mechanics in the sense that the former yields the same position probability density as the latter. However, for a particular non‐purely random process, we show that the stochastic mechanics with the stochastic force ζ(t) is not equivalent to quantum mechanics. Therefore, this stochastic mechanics is also generally not equivalent to quantum mechanics.

Ramabhadra Vasudevan

Ying Oon Tan

Previously [J. Mod. Optics, 51, 1093, (2004)], we introduced an alternative stochastic mechanics in the form of a stochastic differential equation with a stochastic process defined by the set of Bohmian momentum time histories from an ensemble of particles. We showed that the alternative stochastic mechanics with a purely random process characterized by an n‐th order joint probability density in the form of products of delta functions is equivalent to quantum mechanics. In this paper, we show that, for a particular non‐purely random process, the alternative stochastic mechanics is not equivalent to quantum mechanics. Hence, the alternative stochastic mechanics is generally not equivalent to quantum mechanics.