Speaker: Albert Schwarz (University of California, Davis)

Where: In-Person at MIT Room 2-135, and on

Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/94469771032

Title: Geometric approach to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory

Abstract: 

In the geometric approach to quantum theory that I suggested several years ago we take as a starting point the set of states. This viewpoint is more general than the standard approach where the states are considered as density matrices and the algebraic approach where the states are identified with positive functionals on an associative algebra with involution. A large class of examples including conventional quantum mechanics can be constructed from classical theory where our devices can measure only a part of observables.

In a geometric approach one can derive the formulas for probabilities analyzing interaction with a random environment. If the theory is translation-invariant we can define a notion of particle and scattering of particles.