Is classical reality completely deterministic?

Abstract

The concept of determinism for a classical system is interpreted as the requirement that the solution to the Cauchy problem for the equations of motion governing this system be unique. This requirement is generally assumed to hold for all autonomous classical systems. We give counterexamples of this view. Our analysis of classical electrodynamics in a world with one temporal and one spatial dimension shows that the solution to the Cauchy problem with the initial conditions of a particular type is not unique. Therefore, random behavior of closed classical systems is indeed possible. This finding provides a qualitative explanation of how classical strings can split. We propose a modified path integral formulation of classical mechanics to include indeterministic systems.

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References in corpus (6)

• Functional Integration Over Geometries
• Exact Solutions of Classical Electrodynamics and the Yang--Mills--Wong Theory in Even-Dimensional Spacetime
• Geometric Dequantization
• Quantum Behavior of Deterministic Systems with Information Loss. Path Integral Approach
• CLASSICAL SPLITTING OF FUNDAMENTAL STRINGS
• Holography and the origin of anomalies

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Randomness in Quantum Mechanics: Philosophy, Physics and Technology
• Self-interaction in classical gauge theories and gravitation
• On physical principles and mathematical mechanisms of the phenomenon of irreversibility
• Geometrodynamical description of two-dimensional electrodynamics
• Does locality plus perfect correlation imply determinism?
• A Note on Norton's Dome