The spacetime approach to quantum mechanics

Abstract

Feynman's sum-over-histories formulation of quantum mechanics is reviewed as an independent statement of quantum theory in spacetime form. It is different from the usual Schrödinger-Heisenberg formulation that utilizes states on spacelike surfaces because it assigns probabilities to different sets of alternatives. In a sum-over-histories formulation, alternatives at definite moments of time are more restricted than in usual quantum mechanics because they refer only to the coördinates in terms of which the histories are defined. However, in the context of the quantum mechanics of closed systems, sum-over-histories quantum mechanics can be generalized to deal with spacetime alternatives that are not “at definite moments of time”. An example in field theory is the set of alternative ranges of values of a field averaged over a spacetime region. An example in particle mechanics is the set of the alternatives defined by whether a particle never crosses a fixed spacetime region or crosses it at least once. The general notion of a set of spacetime alternatives is a partition (coarse-graining) of the histories into an exhaustive set of exclusive classes. With this generalization the sum-over-histories formulation can be said to be in fully spacetime form with dynamics represented by path integrals over spacetime histories and alternatives defined as spacetime partitions of these histories. When restricted to alternatives at definite moments of times this generalization is equivalent to Schrödinger-Heisenberg quantum mechanics. However, the quantum mechanics of more general spacetime alternatives does not have an equivalent Schrödinger-Heisenberg formulation. We suggest that, in the quantum theory of gravity, the general notion of “observable” is supplied by diffeomorphism invariant partitions of spacetime metrics and matter field configurations. By generalizing the usual alternatives so as to put quantum theory in fully spacetime form we may be led to a covariant generalized quantum mechanics of spacetime free from the problem of time.