Different approaches to the formulation of relativistic many-body dynamics yield different perspectives of nature and the magnitude of ''relativistic effects''. The effects of Lorentz invariance appear to be relatively unimportant. Important dynamical features of spinorial many-body formalisms are effects of subnuclear degrees of freedom which are represented in the many-body forces of the covariant nuclear Hamiltonian. 24 refs.
Different approaches to the formulation of relativistic many-body dynamics yield different perspectives of nature and the magnitude of ''relativistic effects''. The effects of Lorentz invariance appear to be relatively unimportant. Important dynamical features of spinorial many-body formalisms are effects of subnuclear degrees of freedom which are represented in the many-body forces of the covariant nuclear Hamiltonian. 24 refs.
We present a relativistic covariant form of many-body theory. The many-body covariant Lagrangian is derived from QED by integrating out the internal non-quantized electromagnetic field. The ordinary many-body Hamiltonian is recovered as an approximation to the exact covariant theory that contains many-body terms beyond the solely electrostatic interaction, e.g. the Lorentz force among electrons, spin-spin etc. Spin and relativistic terms, e.g. spin-orbit, are also automatically accounted. Moreover, the theory is compact, gauge-invariant and respects causality.
Conventional many-body quantum theory considers, as a rule, a system of particles in the mean field interacting through two-body forces. Recently it was suggested that in nuclear physics many-body forces, first of all three-body ones, are important for saturation of nuclear matter and for many details of nuclear structure. We consider possible influence of three-body forces, regardless of their origin (bare nucleon interactions or effective medium phenomena), on many-body dynamics. The new effects include, but are not limited to, renormalization of pairing and other two-body forces, enhancement of anharmonicity for collective modes, and special features of shell model calculations.
What is relativistic quantum theory? How does it differ from non-relativistic quantum mechanics? Is there something more involved than the transition from the Galilean group to the Lorentz group? These questions are evidently of great importance to the understanding of relativistic quantum theory (RQT), in particular to the distinction between the basic principles of quantum theory, and the characterization of a particular class of dynamical evolutions. Within non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) a reasonably precise response is possible (differences concern the number of degrees of freedom, the existence of internal symmetries, and the form of the Hamiltonian as a function of the canonical variables); what appears characteristic of RQT is the appearance of a dynamics of a qualitatively different character (involving the creation and annihilation of particles), involving new kinds of constraints (renormalization theory: anomalies). Nevertheless, it seems we must know how to pass from the inhomogeneous Galilean group (IHGG) to the Lorentz group (IHLG), if only because we have successfully constructed a RQT, surely, then, we know what it is that we hold invariant in this transition.
Problems with the extension to relativity. The Klein–Gordon equation The attempt to extend the causal interpretation to cover relativistic quantum mechanics raises several problems of technique and principle. These relate not only to difficulties peculiar to the quantum theory of motion but have to do with still unresolved issues in the underlying quantum mechanical formalism (such as the appearance of infinities in the computation of physical quantities and the lack of a relativistic theory of measurement). Some problems are common to both, such as the difficulty of defining positive densities. The subject has not been extensively investigated and in this chapter we shall discuss only some of the relevant issues. There are two particularly important, overlapping problems: Can the trajectory concept be retained in the relativistic quantum domain? And: how do we interpret relativistic quantum fields? The unresolved issue underlying both questions is the extent to which we should require a quantum theory to be ‘relativistic’. It is known that Lorentz covariant wave equations can have consequences in conflict with relativity. This, as we shall see, is indeed the case with the current relativistic formalism as interpreted, or completed, by the quantum theory of motion. Especially in field theory, the individual processes that build up and explain the covariant statistical predictions of the formalism exhibit features that are in conflict with our entrenched ideas regarding covariance and locality as necessary concomitants of relativity theory. That is, relativity is statistically valid but the individual events do not have an intrinsically relativistic character.
Abstract Avoiding the assumption that relativistic scattering be describable by interacting fields we find in the Schrödinger picture relativistic scattering closely analogue to the non-relativistic case. On the space of scattering states the invariant mass operator M′ M ′ of the interacting time evolution has to be unitarily equivalent to the invariant mass M=P2 M = P 2 where P, acting on many-particle states, is the sum of the one-particle four-momenta. For an observer at rest P0 P 0 generates the free time evolution. Poincaré symmetry requires the interacting Hamiltonian H′ H ′ to Lorentz transform as 0-component of a four-vector and to commute with the four-velocity U=P/M U = P / M but not with P, else there is no scattering. Even though H′ H ′ does not commute with P, the scattering matrix does. The four-velocity U generates translations of states as they are seen by shifted observers. Superpositions of nearly mass degenerate particles such as a Klong K long are seen by an inversely shifted observer as a shifted Klong K long with an unchanged relative phase. In contrast, the four-momentum P generates oscillated superpositions e.g. a shifted Kshort K short with a changed relative phase. The probability of scattering of massive particles is shown to be approximately proportional to the spacetime overlap of their position wave functions. This is basic to macroscopic locality and justifies to represent the machinery of actual scattering experiments by the vacuum. In suitable variables the relativistic Hamiltonian of many-particle states is not the sum of a Hamiltonian for the motion of the center and a commuting Hamiltonian for the relative motion but factorizes as their product. They act on different variables of the wave functions.