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Frontiers in Physics

Deterministic Quantum Mechanics: The Mathematical Equations

Gerard ’t Hooft

Published Jul 29, 2020• 38 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Without wasting time and effort on philosophical justifications and implications, we write down the conditions for the Hamiltonian of a quantum system for rendering it mathematically equivalent to a deterministic system. These are the equations to be considered. Special attention is given to the notion of `locality'. Various examples are worked out, followed by a systematic procedure to generate classical evolution laws and quantum Hamiltonians that are exactly equivalent. What is new here is that we consider interactions, keeping them as general as we can. The quantum systems found, form a dense set if we limit ourselves to sufficiently low energy states. The class is discrete, just because the set of deterministic models containing a finite number of classical states, is discrete. In contrast with earlier suspicions, the gravitational force turns out not to be needed for this; it suffices that the classical system act at a time scale much smaller than the inverse of the maximum scattering energies considered.

DOI
10.3389/fphy.2020.00253

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Without wasting time and effort on philosophical justifications and implications, we write down the conditions for the Hamiltonian of a quantum system for rendering it mathematically equivalent to a deterministic system. These are the equations to be considered. Special attention is given to the notion of `locality'. Various examples are worked out, followed by a systematic procedure to generate classical evolution laws and quantum Hamiltonians that are exactly equivalent. What is new here is that we consider interactions, keeping them as general as we can. The quantum systems found, form a dense set if we limit ourselves to sufficiently low energy states. The class is discrete, just because the set of deterministic models containing a finite number of classical states, is discrete. In contrast with earlier suspicions, the gravitational force turns out not to be needed for this; it suffices that the classical system act at a time scale much smaller than the inverse of the maximum scattering energies considered.
Without wasting time and effort on philosophical justifications and implications, we write down the conditions for the Hamiltonian of a quantum system for rendering it mathematically equivalent to a deterministic system. These are the equations to be considered. Special attention is given to the notion of 'locality'. Various examples are worked out, followed by a systematic procedure to generate classical evolution laws and quantum Hamiltonians that are exactly equivalent. What is new here is that we consider interactions, keeping them as general as we can. The quantum systems found, form a dense set if we limit ourselves to sufficiently low energy states. The class is discrete, just because the set of deterministic models containing a finite number of classical states, is discrete. In contrast with earlier suspicions, the gravitational force turns out not to be needed for this; it suffices that the classical system act at a time scale much smaller than the inverse of the maximum scattering energies considered.
Classical, i.e. deterministic theories underlying quantum mechanics are considered, and it is shown how an apparent quantum mechanical Hamiltonian can be defined in such theories, being the operator that generates evolution in time. It includes various types of interactions. An explanation must be found for the fact that, in the real world, this Hamiltonian is bounded from below. The mechanism that can produce exactly such a constraint is identified in this paper. It is the fact that not all classical data are registered in the quantum description. Large sets of values of these data are assumed to be indistinguishable, forming equivalence classes. It is argued that this should be attributed to information loss, such as what one might suspect to happen during the formation and annihilation of virtual black holes. The nature of the equivalence classes follows from the positivity of the Hamiltonian. Our world is assumed to consist of a very large number of subsystems that may be regarded as approximately independent, or weakly interacting with one another. As long as two (or more) sectors of our world are treated as being independent, they all must be demanded to be restricted to positive energy states only. What follows from these considerations is a unique definition of energy in the quantum system in terms of the periodicity of the limit cycles of the deterministic model.
If there exists a classical, i.e. deterministic theory underlying quantum mechanics, an explanation must be found of the fact that the Hamiltonian, which is defined to be the operator that generates evolution in time, is bounded from below. The mechanism that can produce exactly such a constraint is identified in this paper. It is the fact that not all classical data are registered in the quantum description. Large sets of values of these data are assumed to be indistinguishable, forming equivalence classes. It is argued that this should be attributed to information loss, such as what one might suspect to happen during the formation and annihilation of virtual black holes. The nature of the equivalence classes is further elucidated, as it follows from the positivity of the Hamiltonian. Our world is assumed to consist of a very large number of subsystems that may be regarded as approximately independent, or weakly interacting with one another. As long as two (or more) sectors of our world are treated as being independent, they all must be demanded to be restricted to positive energy states only. What follows from these considerations is a unique definition of energy in the quantum system in terms of the periodicity of the limit cycles of the deterministic model.
We discuss the arguments for suspecting that there exists a classical, i.e. deterministic theory underlying quantum mechanics. A difficulty is that an explanation must be found of the fact that the Hamiltonian, which is defined to be the operator that generates evolution in time, is bounded from below. The mechanism that can produce exactly such a constraint is identified in this paper. It is the fact that not all classical data are registered in the quantum description. Large sets of values of these data are assumed to be indistinguishable, forming equivalence classes. It is argued that this should be attributed to information loss, such as what one might suspect to happen during the formation and annihilation of virtual black holes.The nature of the equivalence classes is further elucidated, as it follows from the positivity of the Hamiltonian. Our world is assumed to consist of a very large number of subsystems that may be regarded as approximately independent, or weakly interacting with one another. As long as two (or more) sectors of our world are treated as being independent, they all must be demanded to be restricted to positive energy states only. What follows from these considerations is a unique definition of energy in the quantum system in terms of the periodicity of the limit cycles of the deterministic model.An example of a deterministic dissipative model producing exact quantum mechanics is provided for the case of a finite‐dimensional vector space. These lecture notes have been produced partly from material published earlier, and as such contain more material than what could be presented in the talk.
A theoretical investigation is made into the difficulties encountered in constructing a deterministic model for quantum mechanics and into the restrictions that can be placed on the form of such a model.The various implications of the known 11 impossi bil ity proofs II are examined.A possible explanation for the non-locality required by Bell's proof is suggested in terms of backwards-in-time causality.The efficacy of the Kochen and Specker proof is brought into doubt by showing that there is a possible way of avoiding its implications in the only known physically realizable situation to which it applies.Also, a new thought experiment is put forward to show that a particle's predetermined momentum and energy values cannot satisfy the laws of momentum and energy conservation without conflicting with the predictions of quantum mechanics.Special attention is paid to a particular class of deterministic models which appear not to have been explicitly studied before.The models considered are those for which the individual outcomes of measurements are not dependent on hidden variables associated with the measuring apparatus and for which the hidden variables of a particle do not need to be randomized after each measurement.Specific models of this type are constructed and examined for the cases of both discrete and continuous spectra of eigenvalues.In developing these models a need is found for a joint distribution for position and momentum.In relation to this point, it is demonstrated that the quantum mechanical wave equations actually point to a particular joint distribution expression, namely the Margenau and Hill distribution.The schemes considered are found to have certain shortcomings and possible steps towards more satisfactory models are suggested.
The aim of this work is to show that particle mechanics, both classical and quantum, Hamiltonian and Lagrangian, can be derived from few simple physical assumptions. Assuming deterministic and reversible time evolution will give us a dynamical system whose set of states forms a topological space and whose law of evolution is a self-homeomorphism. Assuming the system is infinitesimally reducible—specifying the state and the dynamics of the whole system is equivalent to giving the state and the dynamics of its infinitesimal parts—will give us a classical Hamiltonian system. Assuming the system is irreducible—specifying the state and the dynamics of the whole system tells us nothing about the state and the dynamics of its substructure—will give us a quantum Hamiltonian system. Assuming kinematic equivalence, that studying trajectories is equivalent to studying state evolution, will give us Lagrangian mechanics and limit the form of the Hamiltonian/Lagrangian to the one with scalar and vector potential forces.