An Objective Interpretation of Lagrangian Quantum Mechanics

Unlike classical mechanics, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics does not provide an objective space-time picture of the actual history of a physical system. This paper suggests how the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics can be reformulated, without changing the mathematical content of the theory or its detailed agreement with experiment and without introducing any hidden variables, in order to provide an objective, covariant, Lagrangian description of reality which is deterministic and time-symmetric on the microscopic scale. The basis of this description can be expressed either as an action functional or as a summation over Feynman diagrams or paths. The probability laws associated with the quantum-mechanical measurement process, and the asymmetry in time of the principles of macroscopic causality and of the laws of statistical mechanics, are interpreted as consequences of the particular boundary conditions that apply to the actual universe. The objective interpretation does not include the observer and the measurement process among the fundamental concepts of the theory, but it does entail a revision of our ideas of determinism and of time, since in a Lagrangian theory both initial and final boundary conditions on the action functional are required.