Wiener Integration for Quantum Systems: A Unified Approach to the Feynman-Kac formula

While it is well-known that quantum mechanics can be reformulated in terms of a path integral representation, it will be shown that such a formulation is also possible in the case of classical mechanics. From Koopman-von Neumann theory, which recasts classical mechanics in terms of a Hilbert space wherein the Liouville operator acts as the generator of motion, we derive a path integral representation of the classical propagator and suggest an efficient numerical implementatio...

Canonical quantization entails using Cartesian coordinates, and Cartesian coordinates exist only in flat spaces. This situation can either be questioned or accepted. In this paper we offer a brief and introductory overview of how a flat phase space metric can be incorporated into a covariant, coordinate-free quantization procedure involving a continuous-time (Wiener measure) regularization of traditional phase space path integrals. Additionally we show how such procedures can...

We develop a mathematically well-defined path integral formalism for general symplectic manifolds. We argue that in order to make a path integral quantization covariant under general coordinate transformations on the phase space and involve a genuine functional measure that is both finite and countably additive, the phase space manifold should be equipped with a Riemannian structure (metric). A suitable method to calculate the metric is also proposed.

Adapting ideas of Daubechies and Klauder we derive a continuum path-integral formula for the time evolution generated by a spin Hamiltonian. For this purpose we identify the finite-dimensional spin Hilbert space with the ground-state eigenspace of a suitable Sch\"odinger operator on $L^2({\mathbb{R}}^2)$, the Hilbert space of square-integrable functions on the Euclidean plane ${\mathbb{R}}^2$, and employ the Feynman-Kac-It\^o formula.

The concern of this article is a semiclassical Weyl calculus on an infinite dimensional Hilbert space $H$. If $(i, H, B)$ is a Wiener triplet associated to $H$, the quantum state space will be the space of $L^2$ functions on $B$ with respect to a Gaussian measure with $h/2$ variance, where $h$ is the semiclassical parameter. We prove the boundedness of our pseudodifferential operators (PDO) in the spirit of Calder\'on-Vaillancourt with an explicit bound, a Beals type characte...

The generalized Schrodinger equation deduced in the earlier papers is compared with conventional constructions of quantum field theory. In particular, it yields the usual Schrodinger equation of quantum field theory written without normal ordering. This leads to a definition of certain mathematical version of Feynman integral.

In this paper we develop the alternative path-integral approach to quantum mechanics. We present a resolvent of a Hamiltonian (which is Laplace transform of a evolution operator) in a form which has a sense of ``the sum over paths'' but it is much more better defined than the usual functional integral. We investigate this representation from various directions and compare such approach to quantum mechanics with the standard ones.

The Feynman path integral plays a crucial role in quantum mechanics, offering significant insights into the interaction between classical action and propagators, and linking quantum electrodynamics (QED) with Feynman diagrams. However, the formulations of path integrals in classical quantum mechanics and QED are neither unified nor interconnected, suggesting the potential existence of an important bridging theory that could be key to solving existing puzzles in quantum mechan...

Closed systems in Newtonian mechanics obey the principle of Galilean relativity. However, the usual Lagrangian for Newtonian mechanics, formed from the difference of kinetic and potential energies, is not invariant under the full group of Galilean transformations. In quantum mechanics Galilean boosts require a non-trivial transformation rule for the wave function and a concomitant "projective representation" of the Galilean symmetry group. Using Feynman's path integral formal...

We analyze the Schr\"{o}dinger dynamics and the Schr\"{o}dinger function (or the so-called wavefunction) in the following four aspects. (1) The Schr\"{o}dinger equation is reconstructed from scratch in the real field only, without referring to Newtonian mechanics nor optics. Only the very simple conditions such as the space-time translational symmetry and the conservation of flux and energy are imposed on the factorization of the density distribution in configuration space, g...