Spacetime quantum mechanics for bosonic and fermionic systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spacetime-symmetric Hilbert space framework for quantum mechanics that unifies the treatment of space and time, providing new insights into quantum evolution, path integrals, and quantum states.

Contribution

It develops a novel spacetime-symmetric algebraic structure for quantum mechanics, replacing classical time dependence with a quantum action operator and offering an alternative path integral formulation for fermions.

Findings

Standard quantum evolution recovered from timelike correlators

Path integral formulation for fermions without Grassmann variables

Generalized quantum states encode system information and evolution

Abstract

We provide a Hilbert space approach to quantum mechanics where space and time are treated on an equal footing. Our approach replaces the standard dependence on an external classical time parameter with a spacetime-symmetric algebraic structure, thereby unifying the axioms that traditionally distinguish the treatment of spacelike and timelike separations. Standard quantum evolution can be recovered from timelike correlators, defined by means of a quantum action operator, a quantum version of the action of classical mechanics. The corresponding map also provides a novel perspective on the path integral formulation, which, in the case of fermions, yields an alternative to the use of Grassmann variables. In addition, the formalism can be interpreted in terms of generalized quantum states, codifying both the conventional information of a quantum system at a given time and its evolution. We show that these states are solutions to a quantum principle of stationary action grounded in timelike correlations and pseudo-entropies