Derivation of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from a path integral for minisuperspace models

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

149

Canonical Formalism, Lagrangians, And Variational Principles, Lagrangian And Hamiltonian Approach

Scientific paper

We explore the relationship between path-integral and Dirac quantization for a simple class of reparametrization-invariant theories. The main object is to study minisuperspace models in quantum cosmology-models for quantum gravity in which one restricts attention to a finite number of degrees of freedom. Our starting point for the construction of the (Lorentzian) path integral is the very general and powerful method introduced by Batalin, Fradkin, and Vilkovisky. Particular attention is paid to the measure in the large, i.e., to the range of integration of the Lagrange multiplier. We show how to derive the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from our path-integral expression. The relationship between the choice of measure in the path integral and the operator ordering in the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is thus determined. The operator-ordering ambiguity in the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is completely fixed by demanding invariance under field redefinitions of both the three-metric and the lapse function. Our results are applied to two simple examples: the nonrelativistic point particle in parametrized form and the relativistic point particle. We also consider a simple minisuperspace example and discuss a difficulty that arises: namely, the problem of incorporating the fact that dethij>0 into the quantization procedure.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Derivation of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from a path integral for minisuperspace models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Derivation of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from a path integral for minisuperspace models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Derivation of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from a path integral for minisuperspace models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1600288

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.