Quantum Mechanics and Discrete Time from “Timeless” Classical Dynamics

Abstract

We study classical Hamiltonian systems in which the intrinsic proper time evolution parameter is related through a probability distribution to the physical time, which is assumed to be discrete. In this way, a physical clock with discrete states is introduced, which presently is still treated as decoupled from the system. This is motivated by the recent discussion of ``timeless'' reparametrization invariant models, where discrete physical time has been constructed based on quasi-local observables. Employing the path-integral formulation of classical mechanics developed by Gozzi et al., we show that these deterministic classical systems can be naturally described as unitary quantum mechanical models. We derive the emergent quantum Hamiltonian in terms of the underlying classical one. Such Hamiltonians typically need a regularization - here performed by discretization - in order to arrive at models with a stable groundstate in the continuum limit. This is demonstrated in several examples, recovering and generalizing a model advanced by 't Hooft.