Quantum Mechanics as a Classical Theory—Application to the Interaction of Light with an Extremely Diluted Gas: Redshifts and Black Matter in Astrophysics

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-394
Author(s):  
Jacques Moret‐Bailly

The steady development of the quantum theory that has taken place during the present century was made possible only by continual reference to the Correspondence Principle of Bohr, according to which, classical theory can give valuable information about quantum phenomena in spite of the essential differences in the fundamental ideas of the two theories. A masterful advance was made by Heisenberg in 1925, who showed how equations of classical physics could be taken over in a formal way and made to apply to quantities of importance in quantum theory, thereby establishing the Correspondence Principle on a quantitative basis and laying the foundations of the new Quantum Mechanics. Heisenberg’s scheme was found to fit wonderfully well with the Hamiltonian theory of classical mechanics and enabled one to apply to quantum theory all the information that classical theory supplies, in so far as this information is consistent with the Hamiltonian form. Thus one was able to build up a satisfactory quantum mechanics for dealing with any dynamical system composed of interacting particles, provided the interaction could be expressed by means of an energy term to be added to the Hamiltonian function. This does not exhaust the sphere of usefulness of the classical theory. Classical electrodynamics, in its accurate (restricted) relativistic form, teaches us that the idea of an interaction energy between particles is only an approxi­mation and should be replaced by the idea of each particle emitting waves which travel outward with a finite velocity and influence the other particles in passing over them. We must find a way of taking over this new information into the quantum theory and must set up a relativistic quantum mechanics, before we can dispense with the Correspondence Principle.


2021 ◽  
pp. 207-219
Author(s):  
J. Iliopoulos ◽  
T.N. Tomaras

In Chapter 2 we presented the method of canonical quantisation which yields a quantum theory if we know the corresponding classical theory. In this chapter we argue that this method is not unique and, furthermore, it has several drawbacks. In particular, its application to constrained systems is often problematic. We present Feynman’s path integral quantisation method and derive from it Schroödinger’s equation. We follow Feynman’s original approach and we present, in addition, more recent experimental results which support the basic assumptions. We establish the equivalence between canonical and path integral quantisation of the harmonic oscillator.


Author(s):  
Gerard 't Hooft

Arguments that quantum mechanics cannot be explained in terms of any classical theory using only classical logic seem to be based on sound mathematical considerations: there cannot be physical laws that require ‘conspiracy’. It may therefore be surprising that there are several explicit quantum systems where these considerations apparently do not apply. In this report, several such counterexamples are shown. These are quantum models that do have a classical origin. The most curious of these models is superstring theory. So now the question is asked: how can such a model feature ‘conspiracy’, and how bad is that? Is there conspiracy in the vacuum fluctuations? Arguments concerning Bell's theorem are further sharpened.


The problem of the collision of two particles which act upon each other with forces varying as the inverse square of the distance between them has been solved exactly on the basis of the new quantum mechanics, and the solution is the same as that given by classical mechanics. In a recent paper, however, Mott has pointed out that this agreement between the predictions of classical mechanics and wave mechanics depends upon the dissimilarity of the colliding particles; if the particles are identical the scattering laws given by the wave mechanics will be very different from those of classical theory. Mott has considered the two types of collision between similar particles, (1) in which the particles possess spin, such as the collisions of electrons with electrons or protons with hydrogen nuclei, and (2) in which the particles have no spin, such as the collisions of α -particles with helium nuclei.


The new quantum mechanics, introduced by Heisenberg and since developed from different points of view by various authors, takes its simplest form if one assumes merely that the dynamical variables are numbers of a special type (called q-numbers to distinguish them from ordinary or c-numbers) that obey all the ordinary algebraic laws except the commutative law of multiplication, and satisfy instead of this the relations q r q s – q s q r =0, p r p s – p s p r = 0 } q r q s – p s q r = 0 ( r ≠ s ) or ih ( r = s ) where the p' s and q' s are a set of canonical variables and h is a c-number euqal to (2π) -1 times the usual Planck’s constant. Equations (1) may be regarded as replacing the commutative law of the classical theory, as one can, with their help, build up a complete algebraic theory of quantities that are analytic functions of a set of canonical variables. Further, it may easily be seen that the quantity [ x, y ] defined by xy – yz = ih [ x, y ] is completely analogous to the Poisson bracket of the classical theory. By means of this analogy the whole of the classical dynamical theory, in so far as it can be expressed in terms of P. B.’s instead of differential coefficients, may be taken over immediately into the quantum theory.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1341-1348 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Heslot

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document