By making use of the method of moments we study some aspects of the statistical behavior of the nonrelativistic harmonic oscillator according to stochastic electrodynamics. We show that the random rotations induced on the particle by the zero-point field account for the magnitude of the spin of the electron, the result differing from the correct one(3/4)h 2 by a factor of2. Assuming that the measurement of a spin projection may be effectively taken into account by considering the action of only (...) the subensemble of the field with the corresponding circular polarization, the calculated value of the spin projection comes out to be the correct one within a factor of order unity. The radiative corrections give rise to both the Lamb shift and the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, the latter being evaluated to within a factor of2. The magnetic and gyromagnetic properties of the electron come out to be in agreement with quantum mechanics. Interference effects are shown to occur when evaluating the average value of the square of the angular momentum. (shrink)

The connection between stochastic electrodynamics (SED) and the quantum theory of matter is further explored. The main result is that the Fokker-Planck-like equation of SED can be recast into the form of a Schrödinger equation with radiative corrections, when the system is close to a state of equilibrium. The phase-space distribution can be written as Wigner's pseudo-distribution plus corrections due to the nonlinearity of the external force and to radiative effects. The radiative corrections predicted by the theory, namely the Lamb (...) shift and the decay of excited atomic states, coincide with those predicted by QED. Moreover, the theory offers a clear physical interpretation of these phenomena as due to the coupling of the electric dipole of the system with the zero-point radiation field and to radiation reaction, respectively. (shrink)

The prospects for a complete stochastic theory of microscopic phenomena are considered. The two traditional schools of stochastic physics, the diffusion process school and the zero-point electromagnetic field school, are reviewed. A completely relativistic theory, stochastic field theory, is proposed as an extension of the ideas of these two schools. Within the context of stochastic field theory we present the following new results: an elementary stochastization scheme which produces the zero-point electromagnetic field; a physical interpretation of the mathematical methods developed (...) by Lukosz for calculating zero-point energies; a calculation of the first-order Lamb shift which generalizes that of Welton; a new setting for a finite-temperature theory; and comments on the bag model for quark confinement. (shrink)