Boundary conditions: The path integral approach

Abstract

The path integral approach to quantum mechanics requires a substantial generalisation to describe the dynamics of systems confined to bounded domains. Non-local boundary conditions can be introduced in Feynman's approach by means of boundary amplitude distributions and complex phases to describe the quantum dynamics in terms of the classical trajectories. The different prescriptions involve only trajectories reaching the boundary and correspond to different choices of boundary conditions of selfadjoint extensions of the Hamiltonian. One dimensional particle dynamics is analysed in detail.

8 pages

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Topology and Geometry of self-adjoint and elliptic boundary conditions for Dirac and Laplace operators
• Non-perturbative Quantum Propagators in Bounded Spaces
• Worldline formalism for a confined scalar field
• Path Integral on Star Graph
• Particle Propagation on a Circle with a Point Interaction