Decoherent histories analysis of the relativistic particle

Abstract

The Klein-Gordon equation is a useful test arena for quantum cosmological models described by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We use the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory to obtain the probability that a free relativistic particle crosses a section of spacelike surface. The decoherence functional is constructed using path integral methods with initial states attached using the (positive definite) ``induced'' inner product between solutions to the constraint equation. The notion of crossing a spacelike surface requires some attention, given that the paths in the path integral may cross such a surface many times, but we show that first and last crossings are in essence the only useful possibilities. Different possible results for the probabilities are obtained, depending on how the relativistic particle is quantized (using the Klein-Gordon equation, or its square root, with the associated Newton-Wigner states). In the Klein-Gordon quantization, the decoherence is only approximate, due to the fact that the paths in the path integral may go backwards and forwards in time. We compare with the results obtained using operators which commute with the constraint (the ``evolving constants'' method).

51 pages, plain Tex

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