Spacetime alternatives in the quantum mechanics of a relativistic particle

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.50.6344· OSTI ID:6906085

Whelan, J T ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530 (United States) Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge, CB3 0EH (United Kingdom)

Hartle's generalized quantum mechanics formalism is used to examine spacetime coarse grainings, i.e., sets of alternatives defined with respect to a region extended in time as well as space, in the quantum mechanics of a free relativistic particle. For a simple coarse graining and suitable initial conditions, tractable formulas are found for branch wave functions. Despite the nonlocality of the positive-definite version of the Klein-Gordon inner product, which means that nonoverlapping branches are not sufficient to imply decoherence, some initial conditions are found to give decoherence and allow the consistent assignment of probabilities.

• OSTI ID: 6906085
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 50:10; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661100* -- Classical & Quantum Mechanics-- (1992-)
661310 -- Relativity & Gravitation-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ENERGY RANGE
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
MECHANICS
PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM GRAVITY
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SPACE-TIME
WAVE FUNCTIONS