From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxr!lew Newsgroups: net.physics Title: Re: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics Article-I.D.: ihuxr.325 Posted: Fri Feb 11 12:28:07 1983 Received: Sat Feb 12 05:25:21 1983 Reply-To: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) One shouldn't refer to Schrodingers equation when discussing the philosophical foundations of modern physics. SE doesn't have relativistic invariance, and in fact doesn't even have Galilean invariance! Quantum Electrodynamics gives a better illustration of the modern concepts which comprise the foundation for the various particle theories. In QED particles are not conserved, and it is interactions that have primary reality. The particles are represented by propagators which give the probability of an interaction occuring at some space-time point, given that certain interactions have occurred at other points. In QED the electron propagator must be combined with the positron propagator to form an invariant object. This means that an event which is interpreted as an electron being scattered in one frame, might involve a positron in another frame. Only the events (and the theory) are the same in both frames. An electron might scatter at A, propagate across a SPACE-LIKE interval, and be scattered at B. In a frame where B occured first, we say that a virtual electron - positron pair was created at B, and the positron was subsequently annihilated at A, freeing the electron created at B. The virtual pair is part of the celebrated "Quantum Foam", which is ever available for interactions of this sort. Reference - "Theory of Fundamental Processes" by Richard Feynman Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew