Planck's Constant as a Dynamical Field & Path Integral

TL;DR

This paper models Planck's constant as a dynamic field with solutions that include standing waves and decay modes, linking its variability to astrophysical phenomena and incorporating it into path integral formulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel field-theoretic approach to treat Planck's constant as a dynamical entity with specific solutions and explores its implications in astrophysics and cosmology.

Findings

Derived a positional dependence of Planck's constant matching previous theoretical models

Identified three solutions for the acton field with distinct physical properties

Connected the variability of Planck's constant to astrophysical and cosmological contexts

Abstract

The constant h is elevated to a dynamical field, coupling to other fields, and itself, through the Lagrangian density derivative terms. The spatial and temporal dependence of h falls directly out of the field equations themselves. Three solutions are found: a free field with a tadpole term; a standing-wave non-propagating mode; a non-oscillating non-propagating mode. The first two are quantizable, and the third is not. The third corresponds to a zero-momentum classical field that naturally decays spatially to a constant with no ad-hoc terms added to the Lagrangian. An attempt is made to calibrate the constants in the third solution based on experimental data. The three fields are referred to as actons. It is tentatively concluded that the acton origin coincides with a massive body, or point of infinite density, though is not mass dependent. An expression for the positional dependence of Planck's constant is derived from a field theory in this work that matches in functional form that of one derived from considerations of Local Position Invariance violation in GR in another paper by this author. Astrophysical and Cosmological interpretations are provided. A treatment of variable Planck's constant in a path integral is appended.