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arXiv:1403.1464 · Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences

On the description of subsystems in relativistic hypersurface Bohmian mechanics

Detlef Dürr, Matthias Lienert

Published Jul 9, 2014• 6 citations
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Abstract

A candidate for a realistic relativistic quantum theory is the hypersurface Bohm-Dirac model. Its formulation uses a foliation of space-time into space-like hypersurfaces. In order to apply the theory and to make contact with the usual quantum formalism, one needs a framework for the description of subsystems. The presence of spin together with the foliation renders the subsystem description more complicated than in the non-relativistic case with spin. In this paper, we provide such a framework in terms of an appropriate conditional density matrix and an effective wave function as well as clarify their relation, thereby generalizing previous subsystem descriptions in the non-relativistic case.

DOI
10.1098/rspa.2014.0181

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A candidate for a realistic relativistic quantum theory is the hypersurface Bohm-Dirac model. Its formulation uses a foliation of space-time into space-like hypersurfaces. In order to apply the theory and to make contact with the usual quantum formalism, one needs a framework for the description of subsystems. The presence of spin together with the foliation renders the subsystem description more complicated than in the non-relativistic case with spin. In this paper, we provide such a framework in terms of an appropriate conditional density matrix and an effective wave function as well as clarify their relation, thereby generalizing previous subsystem descriptions in the non-relativistic case.
We define a class of Lorentz-invariant Bohmian quantum models for N entangled but noninteracting Dirac particles. Lorentz invariance is achieved for these models through the incorporation of an additional dynamical space-time structure provided by a foliation of space time. These models can be regarded as the extension of Bohm's model for N Dirac particles, corresponding to the foliation into the equal-time hyperplanes for a distinguished Lorentz frame, to more general foliations. As with Bohm's model, there exists for these models an equivariant measure on the leaves of the foliation. This makes possible a simple statistical analysis of position correlations analogous to the equilibrium analysis for (the nonrelativistic) Bohmian mechanics.
We give a relativistically covariant, wave-functional formulation of Bohm's quantum field theory for the scalar field based on a general foliation of space-time by space-like hypersurfaces. The wave functional, which guides the evolution of the field, is space-time-foliation independent but the field itself is not. Hence, in order to have a theory in which the field may be considered a beable, some extra rule must be given to determine the foliation. We suggest one such rule based on the eigen vectors of the energy-momentum tensor of the field itself.
We give a relativistically covariant, wave-functional formulation of Bohm's quantum field theory for the scalar field based on a general foliation of spacetime by space-like hypersurfaces. The wave functional, which guides the evolution of the field, is spacetime-foliation independent but the field itself is not. Hence, in order to have a theory in which the field may be considered a beable, some extra rule must be given to determine the foliation. We suggest one such rule based on the eigenvectors of the energy–momentum tensor of the field itself.
It is argued that in Bohmian mechanics the effective wave function of a subsystem of the universe does not encode the influences of other par-ticles on the subsystem. This suggests that the ontology of Bohmian mechanics does not consist only in Bohmian particles and their posi-tions. It is nonetheless pointed out that since the wave function in configuration space may represent the state of ergodic motion of non-Bohmian particles in three-dimensional space, the ontology of Bohmian mechanics may still consist only in particles. Bohmian mechanics, which is also called the de Broglie-Bohm theory, is a realistic alternative to standard quantum mechanics initially proposed by de Broglie (1928) and later developed by Bohm (1952). According to the theory, a complete realistic description of a quantum system is provided by the configuration defined by the positions of its particles together with its wave function. It has been a hot topic of debate how to interpret the wave function in the theory. Recently Esfeld et al (2013) further developed the nomological interpretation of the wave function, as suggested by Dürr, Goldstein and Zangh̀ı (1997), Goldstein and Teufel (2001) and Goldstein and Zangh̀ı (2012). They argued that the ontology of Bohmian mechanics consists only in Bohmian particles and their positions, and in particular, the effective wave function of a subsystem of the universe encodes the influences of other particles in the universe on the subsystem. In this note, we will argue that this interesting view may be problematic. The Bohmian law of motion is expressed by two equations, a guiding equation for the configuration of particles in three-dimensional space and the Schrödinger equation, describing the time evolution of the wave function, which enters the guiding equation. The law can be formulated as follows: dQ(t) dt = vΨ(t)(Q(t)). (1)