This page provides Glenn Eric Johnson’s latest notes on relativistic quantum physics. Please contact me with questions, comments and corrections at glenn.e.johnson@gmail.com. The notes will be updated with clarifications and corrections.
Announcement: 3rd edition, revised (earlier versions should be discarded):
In these notes, constructions demonstrate physically nontrivial realizations of relativistic quantum physics (RQP). A revised understanding of the quantum-classical correspondence in relativistic physics enables realization of RQP with quantum fields. Relativistic location is the archetype for this revised understanding. The constructions satisfy the established properties of quantum mechanics and relativity except for Hermiticity of the fields that appear in the Hilbert space scalar product. Briefly, the contrast of approaches is: RQFT implements interaction with nontrivial classical actions expressed in free field operators with “trivial” Hilbert space scalar products; and the constructions implement interaction with nontrivial Hilbert space scalar products but “trivial” free field-like Hamiltonians. With regularization, RQFT produces series considered to be asymptotic to scattering likelihoods. The constructions produce general state transition likelihoods with scattering limits that include weak interaction asymptotes to Feynman series scattering likelihoods. In RQFT, a Hamiltonian that is distinct from the generator for time translation of the state describing functions destroys Lorentz covariance with the exception of the infinite interval, S-matrix, transitions. The constructions achieve Lorentz covariance with a wholly quantum mechanical description of states and relativistic interaction; classically corresponding interactions approximate the quantum dynamics in appropriate instances. The constructions emphasize realization of quantum mechanics over “quantization” of classical description.
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