Lorentz covariant physical Brownian motion: Classical and quantum

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a classical velocity switching model and its quantum counterpart are Lorentz covariant when properly formulated, ensuring consistency with special relativity and preventing superluminal transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a Lorentz covariant formulation of the Goldstein-Kaç velocity switching model and extends it to a quantum framework, preserving covariance and relativistic constraints.

Findings

Both classical and quantum models are Lorentz covariant.

Quantum variance computed and analyzed.

Transitions outside the light cone are forbidden.

Abstract

In this work, we re-examine the Goldstein-Ka\c{c} velocity switching model from two points of view. On the one hand, we prove that the forward and backward Chapman-Kolmogorov equations of the stochastic process are Lorentz covariant when the trajectories are parameterized by their proper time. On the other hand, to recast the model as a quantum random evolution, we consider restating the Goldstein-Ka\c{c} model as a Hamiltonian system, which can then be quantized using the standard correspondence rules. It turns out that the density for the random quantum evolution satisfies a Chapman-Kolmogorov equation similar to that of the classical case, and therefore, it is also Lorentz covariant. We compute the average quantum variance. To finish, we verify that the quantum model is also consistent with special relativity and that transitions outside the light cone, that is, transitions between states with disjoint supports in space-time, cannot occur.