Multi-time formulation of pair creation
Abstract
In a recent work (Petrat and Tumulka 2013 arXiv:1309.0802), we have described a formulation of a model quantum field theory in terms of a multi-time wave function and proposed a suitable system of multi-time Schrödinger equations governing the evolution of that wave function. Here, we provide further evidence that multi-time wave functions provide a viable formulation of relevant quantum field theories by describing a multi-time formulation, analogous to the one in Petrat and Tumulka (2013 arXiv:1309.0802), of another model quantum field theory. This model involves three species of particles, say x-particles, anti-x-particles, and y-particles, and postulates that a y-particle can decay into a pair consisting of an x and an anti-x particle, and that an x-anti-x pair, when they meet, annihilate each other creating a y-particle. (Alternatively, the model can also be interpreted as representing beta decay.) The wave function is a multi-time version of a time-dependent state vector in Fock space (or rather, the appropriate product of Fock spaces) in the particle-position representation. We write down multi-time Schrödinger equations and verify that they are consistent, provided that an even number of the three particle species involved are fermionic.
- Publication:
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Journal of Physics A Mathematical General
- Pub Date:
- March 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1751-8113/47/11/112001
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1401.6093
- Bibcode:
- 2014JPhA...47k2001P
- Keywords:
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- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, LaTex