Feynman Checkerboard — Path Integral

Checkerboard Paths (Space-Time)

Propagator |K(0→x,t)|²

Feynman Checkerboard (1948): Feynman's discrete lattice model for the 1D Dirac equation. A relativistic spinless fermion travels on a checkerboard at speed ±c. At each time step it either continues straight or changes direction (a "kink"). The amplitude for a path with R direction reversals is (iε/ℏ)^R where ε is the lattice spacing. Summing over all paths gives the Dirac propagator in the continuum limit. This is the path integral: quantum amplitudes arise from coherent superposition of classical trajectories weighted by e^{iS/ℏ}.