Stochastic Mechanics as a Gauge Theory

Abstract

We show that non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics can be faithfully represented in terms of a classical diffusion process endowed with a gauge symmetry of group Z_4. The representation is based on a quantization condition for the realized action along paths. A lattice regularization is introduced to make rigorous sense of the construction and then removed. Quantum mechanics is recovered in the continuum limit and the full U(1) gauge group symmetry of electro-magnetism appears. Anti-particle representations emerge naturally, albeit the context is non-relativistic. Quantum density matrices are obtained by averaging classical probability distributions over phase-action variables. We find that quantum conditioning can be described in classical terms but not through the standard notion of sub sigma-algebras. Delicate restrictions arise by the constraint that we are only interested in the algebra of gauge invariant random variables. We conclude that Quantum Mechanics is equivalent to a theory of gauge invariant classical stochastic processes we call Stochastic Mechanics.