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arXiv:quant-ph/0109027

A nonlocal classical perspective on quantum electrodynamics

P.W.Morgan

Published Sep 5, 2001• 0 citations
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Abstract

The ideas behind the nonlocal classical statistical field theory model for the quantized Klein-Gordon field introduced in Morgan(2001, quant-ph/0106141) are extended to accommodate quantum electrodynamics. The anticommutation rules for the quantized Dirac spinor field are given a classical interpretation as a relativistically covariant modification of the minimal coupling interaction between the classical electromagnetic field and a classical Dirac spinor field.

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The ideas behind the nonlocal classical statistical field theory model for the quantized Klein-Gordon field introduced in Morgan(2001, quant-ph/0106141) are extended to accommodate quantum electrodynamics. The anticommutation rules for the quantized Dirac spinor field are given a classical interpretation as a relativistically covariant modification of the minimal coupling interaction between the classical electromagnetic field and a classical Dirac spinor field.
A classical statistical field theory hidden variable model for the quantized Klein-Gordon model is constructed that preserves relativistic signal locality and is relativistically covariant, but is at the same time relativistically nonlocal, paralleling the Hegerfeldt nonlocality of quantum theory. It is argued that the relativistic nonlocality of this model is acceptable to classical physics, but in any case the approach taken here characterizes the nonlocality of the quantized Klein-Gordon model in terms of concepts from classical statistical field theory.
Classical nonlocal field models consisting of probability densities over functions defined everywhere on Minkowski space are constructed, using functional methods. These models are equivalent to states of the quantized real Klein-Gordon field in the sense that the marginal probability density over real functions defined everywhere on a 3-dimensional hyperplane S, at all times and for all Lorentz boosts, is equal to the corresponding probability density over real functions on S that is given by a state of the quantized real Klein-Gordon field. This paper establishes a relationship between quantum field theory and classical statistical field theory different from the well-known relationship of analytic continuation. 1
In the first part of this work (http://www.arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0509044), it was shown that the Klein-Gordon-Maxwell electrodynamics in the unitary gauge allows natural elimination of the particle wave function and describes independent evolution of the electromagnetic field. Therefore, the electromagnetic field can be regarded as the guiding field in the Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics. An extension of those results to the Dirac-Maxwell electrodynamics was less general, but represented at least an interesting toy model of quantum theory. Another model based on the Dirac-Maxwell electrodynamics is considered in this work. The model also typically allows elimination of the wave function and describes independent evolution of the electromagnetic field.
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.
We give here a field-theoretical derivation of the Hamiltonian of the non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics in the Coulomb gauge using the Lagrange formalism. It leads to the same result as the usual derivation, where one just replaces the classical vector potential in the minimal coupling of the second quantized electron Hamiltonian by the quantized one and adds the photon energy. This approach illustrates however the proper use of the Euler-Lagrange equations and the canonical formalism that fail if one tries to build up the many-body quantum theory starting from the classical theory of point-like particles interacting with electromagnetic fields.
An Ising-type classical statistical model is shown to describe quantum fermions. For a suitable time-evolution law for the probability distribution of the Ising-spins our model describes a quantum field theory for Dirac spinors in external electromagnetic fields, corresponding to a mean field approximation to quantum electrodynamics. All quantum features for the motion of an arbitrary number of electrons and positrons, including the characteristic interference effects for two-fermion states, are described by the classical statistical model. For one-particle states in the non-relativistic approximation we derive the Schrödinger equation for a particle in a potential from the time evolution law for the probability distribution of the Ising-spins. Thus all characteristic quantum features, as interference in a double slit experiment, tunneling or discrete energy levels for stationary states, are derived from a classical statistical ensemble. Concerning the particle-wave-duality of quantum mechanics, the discreteness of particles is traced back to the discreteness of occupation numbers or Ising-spins, while the continuity of the wave function reflects the continuity of the probability distribution for the Ising-spins.