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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
What Is A Photon? Foundations Of Quantum Field Theory, Charles G. Torre
What Is A Photon? Foundations Of Quantum Field Theory, Charles G. Torre
All Physics Faculty Publications
This is a brief, informal, and relatively low-level course on the foundations of quantum field theory. The prerequisites are undergraduate courses in quantum mechanics and electromagnetism.
Why Quantum Mechanics Is Complex, James Thomas Wheeler
Why Quantum Mechanics Is Complex, James Thomas Wheeler
All Physics Faculty Publications
The zero-signature Killing metric of a new, real-valued, 8-dimensional gauging of the conformal group accounts for the complex character of quantum mechanics. The new gauge theory gives manifolds which generalize curved, relativistic phase space. The difference in signature between the usual momentum space metric and the Killing metric of the new geometry gives rise to an imaginary proportionality constant connecting the momentumlike variables of the two spaces. Path integral quantization becomes an average over dilation factors, with the integral of the Weyl vector taking the role of the action. Minimal U(1) electromagnetic coupling is predicted.