skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Emergence of complex and spinor wave functions in scale relativity. I. Nature of scale variables

Journal Article · · Journal of Mathematical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4828707· OSTI ID:22217845
;  [1]
  1. LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris-Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex (France)

One of the main results of scale relativity as regards the foundation of quantum mechanics is its explanation of the origin of the complex nature of the wave function. The scale relativity theory introduces an explicit dependence of physical quantities on scale variables, founding itself on the theorem according to which a continuous and non-differentiable space-time is fractal (i.e., scale-divergent). In the present paper, the nature of the scale variables and their relations to resolutions and differential elements are specified in the non-relativistic case (fractal space). We show that, owing to the scale-dependence which it induces, non-differentiability involves a fundamental two-valuedness of the mean derivatives. Since, in the scale relativity framework, the wave function is a manifestation of the velocity field of fractal space-time geodesics, the two-valuedness of velocities leads to write them in terms of complex numbers, and yields therefore the complex nature of the wave function, from which the usual expression of the Schrödinger equation can be derived.

OSTI ID:
22217845
Journal Information:
Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 54, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0022-2488
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English