Statistical Mechanics and the Ghosts of Departed Quantities

Abstract

Quantum mechanics appears to contain ghosts from both classical statistical mechanics and special relativity. On one hand, both the Dirac and Schr\"{o}dinger equations have classical analogs that emerge directly from classical statistical mechanics, unimpeded by major problems of interpretation. On the other hand, the formal analytic continuation that takes these classical equations to the quantum version introduces a velocity dependent phase. However, among classical theories, only in relativistic mechanics does one find path-dependent phase in the form of relativistic time dilation. This paper explores the idea that if we start with statistical mechanics and special relativity we can discover a version of the quantum algorithm and show that at least some of the resulting ghosts are direct descendants of those connected with the birth of the differential calculus.