Demonstrates the continuum limit of discrete causal chains in quantum dynamics, suggesting new insights into causal reconstruction.
This article completes the bridge between the causal layer and the quantum layer of the reconstruction programme: it proves, under three explicit regularity assumptions, that the Madelung–Schrödinger equation is the continuum limit of discrete causal chains. Status markers: [E] established, [C] conditional, [O] open. The route from elementary causal succession to quantum dynamics factors through two arrows: a discrete causal chain → the continuous reconstructive action → the Madelung–Schrödinger dynamics. The second arrow (action → Madelung) was already established as an Euler–Lagrange theorem in Finite-Action Reconstructive Histories and the Fisher Origin of the Quantum Potential. This paper proves the first — that discrete causal chains converge, in a mathematically controlled way, to the continuous reconstructive action. The key identification is that the reconstructive cost between consecutive states is precisely a discrete Lagrangian in the sense of variational-integrator theory (Marsden–West), so a causal chain is a discrete variational system whose critical chains satisfy discrete Euler–Lagrange equations expressing momentum continuity at each node. [E] The discrete action then Γ-converges to the continuous reconstructive action as the action quantum tends to zero at fixed total duration, and the discrete solutions converge to solutions of the Madelung system; the discrete symplectic form converges to the canonical Kähler form of the reconstruction phase space (The Reconstruction Theorem: Minimal Kähler Completion of Fisher–Rao Dynamics), so the Kähler structure is preserved in the limit. [C] Combined with that Madelung result, this completes a fully variational chain from elementary causal succession (Causal Reconstruction: Elementary Succession and the Planck Energy) to the Schrödinger equation. A substantive contribution is the regularity analysis. In the density variable the Fisher information diverges as the density approaches zero; this is shown to be a coordinate artefact, not a genuine obstruction. In the amplitude variable u = √ρ the Fisher information is exactly a quadratic Dirichlet energy, 4∥∇u∥², and in the wavefunction variable ψ the reconstructive action is smooth on the natural Hilbert space H¹(M, ℂ) with no lower bound on the density — so the C² regularity required by assumption (A1) holds in those charts, and the quantum potential appears as the first variation. [E] The continuum limit reduces to three explicit conditions: tightness of minimising sequences (C1, needed because the state space is not locally compact); a small-step regime keeping each transition inside the injectivity radius (C2); and non-degeneracy of the second variation, excluding conjugate points (C3). Condition C2 holds identically in the limit [E]; C1 and C3 are the operative analytical hypotheses, expected to hold in the small-step regime but not yet established for the programme’s action [O]. The same non-degeneracy condition C3 plays a double role across the causal tier: here it secures the regularity of the cost, while in Causal Succession by Segments: Tunnel Effect, Superposition, and Measurement in the Reconstructive Order it makes the covering relation single-valued — and its failure (conjugate points, multiple equal-length geodesics) is exactly the multivaluation that that article identifies with quantum superposition. Conceptually, the causal-chain picture is thereby promoted from a heuristic interpretation to a variational approximation theorem: a quantum trajectory is not a fundamental continuous object but the continuum limit of a chain of elementary reconstructive transitions, each carrying one action quantum. Status. [E] the discrete-Lagrangian identification and the discrete Euler–Lagrange / momentum-conservation equations; the resolution of the apparent Fisher singularity as a coordinate artefact and the resulting C² regularity in the amplitude and wavefunction charts; the automatic small-step condition C2; the preservation of the Kähler structure · [C] the Γ-convergence and the convergence of discrete solutions to the Madelung system, at the level of the standard variational-integrator theory and conditional on the stated assumptions · [O] the two operative regularity hypotheses C1 (tightness) and C3 (non-degeneracy), expected in the small-step regime but not yet proven for the reconstructive action.
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Jean-François Rigollet (2026) studied this question.
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