An alternative to quantum theory

Ilya Prigogine and Tomio Y. Petrosky

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 1988, vol. 147, issue 3, 461-486

Abstract: In a recent paper we have shown that continuous sets of resonances (as expressed by the nonvanishing of the kinetic collision operator) result in divergences in the traditional unitary transformation theory in addition to the usual ultraviolet divergences. Therefore, relaxation processes and lifetimes cannot be eliminated by unitary transformations diagonalizing the Hamiltonian. For this reason, we introduce a more general transformation theory based on nonfactorizable superoperators which “block diagonalize” the Hamiltonian superoperator and eliminate the divergence of the unitary transformation. This leads to a new concept of “observables” which are represented in general by operators which are both noncommuting and nondistributive. For example, to a single energy level we now associate a set of numbers corresponding to a probability distribution whose width is determined by the lifetime of the state. This new approach incorporates dissipation into the frame of quantum mechanics. It leads directly to a number of predictions such as the existence of a new anomalous Lamb shift dependent on lifetime as well as the appearance of a broken “time symmetry” in the structure of the energy spectrum. As this symmetry breaking depends on the arrow of time (thermodynamic equilibrium is approached in our future and not in our past) which is a property of our universe as a whole, we may call this new effect the “cosmological” Lamb shift. Of course subsequent experiments will have to explore the existence of this effect. Other consequences of this approach are briefly mentioned and will be developed in subsequent papers.

Date: 1988
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:147:y:1988:i:3:p:461-486

DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(88)90165-3

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