An empirically equivalent random field for the quantized electromagnetic field

Peter Morgan

Published 2009-08-17, updated 2011-10-09Version 2

A random field that is empirically equivalent to the quantized electromagnetic field is constructed. A mapping between the creation and annihilation operator algebras of a random field and of the quantized electromagnetic field provides a functor between the algebras and the Hilbert spaces generated by the vacuum states over those algebras. The functor inevitably does not extend to a functorial relationship between the local algebras generated by the random field and by the quantized electromagnetic field, but the empirical content provided by the vacuum state restores an empirical equivalence through the Hilbert spaces. The isomorphism from one creation and annihilation algebra to the other is not translation invariant because it depends on mapping positive frequency modes of one helicity to equivalent negative frequency modes, but the two theories taken independently are presented in equally well-defined and manifestly Lorentz and translation covariant ways.