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The principle of invariance of the c-number symmetric bracket is used to derive both the quantum operator commutator relation $[\hat q, \hat p]=i\hbar$ and the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. A c-number dynamical equation is found which leads to the second quantized field theory of bosons and fermions., Comment: 14 pages. Contributed Paper: XIX International Symposium on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies, Stanford University, August 9-14, 1999

A carefully motivated symmetric variant of the Poisson bracket in ordinary (not Grassmann) phase space variables is shown to satisfy identities which are in algebraic correspondence with the anticommutation postulates for quantized Fermion systems. "Symplecticity" in terms of this symmetric Poisson bracket implies generalized Hamilton's equations that can only be of Schroedinger type (e.g., the Dirac equation but not the Klein-Gordon or Maxwell equations). This restriction also excludes the old "four-Fermion" theory of beta decay., Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX

The self-gravitational correction of the ultraviolet-divergent second- order "vacuum polarization" radiative correction insertion Feynman diagram is carried out using full, self-consistent Einstein equation propagation of the intermediate virtual gravitons, which takes into account their important non-linear interactions with each other. (As a by-product, the subsequent perturbative treatment of these non-linearities is avoided, which eliminates the source of the ultraviolet divergences of the second- quantized gravity theory itself.) The corrected diagram is finite, makes no contribution to charge renormalization (as could be expected of a diagram involving but a single transient virtual pair), and its dynamical behaviour accords with the standard quantum electrodynamics result except at inaccessibly extreme (Planck-scale-related) values of the momentum transfer. There, the standard logarithmic rise with momentum transfer which this diagram contributes to the effective coupling strength falls away, as the diagram proceeds instead to decrease strongly toward zero. The same self-gravitational correction is made to the closely related quartically divergent second-order vacuum-to-vacuum amplitude correction Feynman diagram, and it is found that the result vanishes identically., 22 pages, LaTeX, uses mathlet.sty (attached at bottom)

The Feynman-Garrod path integral representation for time evolution is extended to arbitrary one-parameter continuous canonical transformations. One thereupon obtains a generalized Kerner-Sutcliffe formula for the unique quantum representation of the transformation generator, which can be an arbitrary classical dynamical variable. This closed-form quantization procedure is shown to be equivalent to a natural extension of the standard canonical quantization recipe -- an extension that resolves the operator-ordering ambiguity in favor of the Born-Jordan rule., 6 pages, LaTeX, Revised to refer to the earlier Kerner-Sutcliffe Hamiltonian quantization formula and to the Born-Jordan operator ordering rule. Also now gives the generalizations to multiple degrees of freedom and continuum fields

It is argued that the nonintegrably singular energy density of the electron's electromagnetic field (in both the classical point-charge model and quantum electrodynamics) must entail very strong self-gravitational effects, which, via black hole phenomena at finite radii, could well cut off the otherwise infinite electromagnetic contribution to the electron's mass. The general- relativistic equations for static, spherically symmetric stellar structure are specialized to treat the self-gravitational effects of static, spheri- cally symmetric, nonnegative, localized energy densities which may exhibit nonintegrable singularities at zero radius. It is demonstrated that in many situations, including the electromagnetic ones of interest here, such a system has a black hole whose Schwarzschild radius is that where the original energy per radial distance (the spherical shell area times the original energy density) reaches the inverse of (2G). The total mass of the system is that of this black hole (which follows in the usual way from its Schwarz- schild radius) plus the integrated original energy density outside this black hole. These results produce, for the classical point-charge model of the electron, an electrostatic contribution to its mass which is many orders of magnitude larger than its measured mass. For quantum electrodynamics, how- ever, the result is an electromagnetic mass contribution which is approxi- mately equal to its bare mass -- thus about half of its measured mass., 21 pages