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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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Tunneling of quantum spins

TL;DR: In this article, a WKB formalism is presented whereby the tunneling rate of a quantum spin is obtained in the semiclassical limit when h → 0 and the spin quantum number S → ∞ in such a way that h S remains constant.
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One-particle many-body Green's function theory: Algebraic recursive definitions, linked-diagram theorem, irreducible-diagram theorem, and general-order algorithms.

TL;DR: The diagrammatic linkedness and thus size-consistency of the one-particle Green's function and self-energy are demonstrated at any perturbation order on the basis of the algebraic recursions in an entirely time-independent (frequency-domain) framework.
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Blip decomposition of the path integral: Exponential acceleration of real-time calculations on quantum dissipative systems

TL;DR: For a given set of blips, it is shown that the path sum with respect to the coordinates of all remaining time points is isomorphic to that for the wavefunction of a system subject to an external driving term and thus can be summed by an inexpensive iterative procedure.
Journal ArticleDOI

Thermodynamics of twisted DNA with solvent interaction

TL;DR: In this paper, the imaginary time path integral formalism is applied to a nonlinear Hamiltonian for a short fragment of heterogeneous DNA with a stabilizing solvent interaction term, and Torsional effects are modeled by a twist angle between neighboring base pairs stacked along the molecule backbone.
Journal ArticleDOI

The muon (g−2) precession experiments: Past, present and future

F Combley, +1 more
- 01 Nov 1974 - 
TL;DR: The various experiments completed or in preparation, which are designed to probe the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon to greater and greater precision, are surveyed.