A. Valdés-Hernández

Quantization as an emergent phenomenon due to matter-zeropoint field interaction

Quantization is derived as an emergent phenomenon, resulting from the permanent interaction between matter and radiation field. The starting point for the derivation is the existence of the (continuous) random zero-point electromagnetic radiation field (zpf) of mean energy ?/2 per normal mode. A thermodynamic and statistical analysis leads unequivocally (and without quantum assumptions) to the Planck distribution law for the complete field in equilibrium. The problem of the quantization of matter is then approached from the same perspective: A detailed study of the dynamics of a particle embedded in the zpf shows that when the entire system eventually reaches a situation of energy balance thanks to the combined effect of diffusion and dissipation, the particle has acquired its characteristic quantum properties. To obtain the quantum-mechanical description it has been necessary to do a partial averaging and take the radiationless approximation. Consideration of the neglected radiative terms allows to establish contact with nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics and derive the correct formulas for the first-order radiative corrections. Quantum mechanics emerges therefore as a partial, approximate and time-asymptotic description of a phenomenon that in its original (pre-quantum) description is entirely local and causal.

Emergence of quantization: the spin of the electron

In previous papers, the quantum behavior of matter has been shown to emerge as a result of its permanent interaction with the random zero-point radiation field. Fundamental results, such as the Schrodinger and the Heisenberg formalism, have been derived within this framework. Further, the theory has been shown to provide the basic QED formulas for the radiative corrections, as well as an explanation for entanglement in bipartite systems. This paper addresses the problem of spin from the same perspective. The zero-point field is shown to produce a helicoidal motion of the electron, through the torque exerted by the electric field modes of a given circular polarization, which results in an intrinsic angular momentum, of value /2. Associated with it, a magnetic moment with a (g-factor of 2 is obtained. This allows us to identify the spin of the electron as a further emergent property, generated by the action of the random zero-point field.

Statistical consequences of the zero-point energy of the harmonic oscillator

In a recent thermodynamic analysis of the harmonic oscillator Boyer has shown, using an interpolation procedure, that the existence of a zero-point energy leads to Planck’s law. We avoid the interpolation procedure by adding a statistical argument to arrive at Planck’s law as a consequence of the existence of the zero-point energy. As in Boyer’s argument, no explicit assumption of quantum mechanics is introduced. We discuss the relation of our results to the analysis of Planck and Einstein which led to the notion of the quantized radiation field. We then inquire into the discrete or continuous behavior of the energy and pinpoint the origin and meaning of the discontinuities. To include zero-point fluctuations (which are neglected in the thermodynamic analysis), we discuss the statistical (in contrast to the purely thermodynamic) description of the oscillator, which accounts for both the thermal and temperature-independent contributions to the dispersion of the energy.

Quantum behavior derived as an essentially stochastic phenomenon

We study the behavior of the atomic matter immersed in a zero-point radiation field, which is taken as the source of the endless stochastic motion of electrons. The starting point is a statistical phase-space equation for a particle in interaction with the field. Under certain natural approximations, the system reaches a stationary condition; the corresponding reduced description obtained in configuration space is just the Schrodinger quantum mechanics. Quantum nonlocality is revisited from this point of view and is shown to appear as an artifact of the reduced description. The theory presented also serves to explain why usual quantum mechanics is not amenable to a phase-space formulation.

Proposed physical explanation for the electron spin and related antisymmetry

We offer a possible physical explanation for the origin of the electron spin and the related antisymmetry of the wave function for a two-electron system, in the framework of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics as provided by linear stochastic electrodynamics. A consideration of the separate coupling of the electron to circularly polarized modes of the random electromagnetic vacuum field, allows to disclose the spin angular momentum and the associated magnetic moment with a g-factor 2, and to establish the connection with the usual operator formalism. The spin operator turns out to be the generator of internal rotations, in the corresponding coordinate representation. In a bipartite system, the distinction between exchange of particle coordinates (which include the internal rotation angle) and exchange of states becomes crucial. Following the analysis of the respective symmetry properties, the electrons are shown to couple in antiphase to the same vacuum field modes. This finding, encoded in the antisymmetry of the wave function, provides a physical rationale for the Pauli principle. The extension of our results to a multipartite system is briefly discussed.

Extended Ehrenfest theorem with radiative corrections

A set of basic evolution equations for the mean values of dynamical variables is obtained from the Fokker–Planck equation applied to the general problem of a particle subject to a random force. The specific case of stochastic electrodynamics is then considered, in which the random force is due to the zero-point radiation field. Elsewhere it has been shown that when this system reaches a state of energy balance, it becomes controlled by an equation identical to Schrodingers, if the radiationless approximation is made. The Fokker–Planck equation was shown to lead to the Ehrenfest theorem under such an approximation. Here we show that when the radiative terms are not neglected, an extended form of the Ehrenfest equation is obtained, from which follow, among others, the correct formulas for the atomic lifetimes and the (nonrelativistic) Lamb shift.