One of the great debates albeit a schism in twentieth century physics arose over the interpretation of the quantum phenomenon. On the one hand was the so called ‘Copenhagen School’ with Neils Bohr as its high priest and on the other were the objective realists under the leadership of Albert Einstein. The former stressed the role of the nature of measurement as the source of the quantum phenomenon, while the latter attributed it to some underlying ‘Objective cause’. The attempt of this book is to present a self consistent treatment of quantum phenomenon using one of the most promising ‘Objective realist’ approach, namely, the stochastic formulation of quantum mechanics which a whole school of physicists who were and are votaries to the objective realist world view, have tried to develop over the last several decades. There are many facets of this scheme that are rich areas for further pursuit by young and enthusiastic physicists, and this book, hopefully, will induce many to pursue this vision.

Preface / Forward / Acknowledgements / Introduction / Invitation to Stochastic Calculus / Hydrodynamical Formulation of Quantum Mechanics / Stochastic Diffusion Processes / Selected Problems in Stochastic Mechanics / Stochastic Variational Principles / Euclidean Quantum Mechanics / Stochastic Path Space Picture / Relativistic Stochastic Mechanics / Dirac Equation – Stochastic Viewpoint / Stochastic Field Theory / Stochastic Mechanics on Manifolds / Stochastic Route to Quantum Mechanics – Quest Continues / References / Author Index / Subject Index.

Graduate Students, Researchers & Teachers in Physics