Is quantum field theory a generalization of quantum mechanics?

A. V. Stoyanovsky

Published 2009-01-20, updated 2009-09-10Version 4

We construct a mathematical model analogous to quantum field theory, but without the notion of vacuum and without measurable physical quantities. This model is a direct mathematical generalization of scattering theory in quantum mechanics to path integrals with multidimensional trajectories (whose mathematical interpretation has been given in a previous paper). In this model the normal ordering of operators in the Fock space is replaced by the Weyl-Moyal algebra. This model shows to be useful in proof of various results in quantum field theory: one first proves these results in the mathematical model and then "translates" them into the usual language of quantum field theory by more or less "ugly" procedures.