Abstract
We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for averages over complex-valued weight functions on to be represented as statistical averages over real, non-negative probability weights on . Using this result, we show that many path integrals for time-ordered expectation values of bosonic degrees of freedom in real-valued time can be expressed as statistical averages over ensembles of paths with complex-valued coordinates, and then speculate on possible consequences of this result for the relation between quantum and classical mechanics.
- Received 27 June 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.240201
©2002 American Physical Society