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Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Richard Phillips Feynman
- 01 Apr 1948 - 
- Vol. 20, Iss: 2, pp 367-387
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors formulated non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a different way and showed that the probability of an event which can happen in several different ways is the absolute square of a sum of complex contributions, one from each alternative way.
Abstract
Non-relativistic quantum mechanics is formulated here in a different way. It is, however, mathematically equivalent to the familiar formulation. In quantum mechanics the probability of an event which can happen in several different ways is the absolute square of a sum of complex contributions, one from each alternative way. The probability that a particle will be found to have a path x(t) lying somewhere within a region of space time is the square of a sum of contributions, one from each path in the region. The contribution from a single path is postulated to be an exponential whose (imaginary) phase is the classical action (in units of ℏ) for the path in question. The total contribution from all paths reaching x, t from the past is the wave function ψ(x, t). This is shown to satisfy Schroedinger's equation. The relation to matrix and operator algebra is discussed. Applications are indicated, in particular to eliminate the coordinates of the field oscillators from the equations of quantum electrodynamics.

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Rate of convergence of Feynman approximations of semigroups generated by the oscillator Hamiltonian

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors determined the rate with which finitely multiple approximations in the Feynman formula converge to the exact expression for the equilibrium density operator of a harmonic oscillator in the linear τ-quantization.
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Finite resolution of time in continuous measurements: phenomenology and the model ∗

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Koopman‐von Neumann formulation of classical Yang‐Mills theories: I

TL;DR: In this paper, the Koopman-von Neumann (KvN) formulation of classical non-Abelian gauge field theories is studied and the classical path integral counterpart of the KvN formalism is explored.
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Functions in the Fresnel class

TL;DR: In this paper, the Fresnel class F(H) of H consists of all Fourier-Stieltjes transforms of bounded Borel measures on H, and it is shown that various functions of interest in connection with the Feynman integral and quantum mechanics are in H.