  For decades, mathematical physicists have searched for a coordinate
independent quantization procedure to replace the ad hoc process of canonical
quantization. This effort has largely coalesced into two distinct research
programs: geometric quantization and deformation quantization. Though both of
these programs can claim numerous successes, neither has found mainstream
acceptance within the more experimentally minded quantum physics community,
owing both to their mathematical complexities and their practical failures as
empirical models. This paper introduces an alternative approach to
coordinate-independent quantization called tautologically tuned quantization.
This approach uses only differential geometric structures from symplectic and
Riemannian geometry, especially the tautological one form and vector field
(hence the name). In its focus on physically important functions,
tautologically tuned quantization hews much more closely to the ad hoc approach
of canonical quantization than either traditional geometric quantization or
deformation quantization and thereby avoid some of the mathematical challenges
faced by those methods. Given its focus on standard differential geometric
structures, tautologically tuned quantization is also a better candidate than
either traditional geometric or deformation quantization for application to
covariant Hamiltonian field theories, and therefore may pave the way for the
geometric quantization of classical fields.
