Sum over histories — 10 discussions

Hawking and Hartle proposed a well-known model which postulated a sum over all possible histories considering all compact euclidean metrics to explain the origin of the universe (this is called the No Boundary model). I was wondering whether there is any model or theory (related to cosmology)...

What does Feynman's sum over histories mean to the interpretation of our world? Does it mean that we (or a particle) do not have a definite history, but only the most probable one?

The Hawking-Hartle no boundary condition is well known. The authors considered a many worlds/histories model considering a sum over all compact euclidean metrics. But are there any models or theories that consider a sum over all possible metrics or boundaries? And finally, if all possible...

Physicists Stephen W Hawking and James B Hartle 1 proposed that the universe, in its origins, had no boundary conditions both in space and time. To do that, they proposed a sum over all compact euclidean compact metrics. I have heard that they only considered these metrics in order to simplify...

I am trying to conceptually connect the two formulations of quantum mechanics. The phase space formulation deals with quasi-probability distributions on the phase space and the path integral formulation usually deals with a sum-over-paths in the configuration space. I see how they both lead...

I was recently studying Feynman's sum-over-histories approach to quantum probability. I also was reading an interesting paper on the double slit experiment. How do these two work together. Do some of the probability waves not have a out of phase partner to interfere with itself? On a related...

This seems to contradict the very tools we use to perform the scientific method. Immediately after performing any experiment, the measurement becomes a historical event, and this says that we cannot say that any historical event has actually occurred. Thus, I cannot actually say that I...

How does Feynman "Sum Over Histories" make sense? Hi. I am new to Quantum Physics and this forum as well. I was reading The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking, and came upon the "Alternative Histories" theory in Quantum Mechanics. My questions are: 1.) How is it possible that a particle can...

It's been 20 years since I took field theory in grad school, and I didn't really understand it all that well even then, so I'm basically looking for a very low-level explanation of the following issue... In the sum-over-histories approach, there is the question of which histories to include...

Ok, everyone knows that according to Feynman's theory a subatomic particle traverses all paths from one point to another simultaneously. My idea is to apply this behavior to relationships. For example, given a choice between five girls each choice made invokes a different actual history out of...