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arXiv:1509.00767 · Entropy

Why Bohmian Mechanics? One- and Two-Time Position Measurements, Bell Inequalities, Philosophy, and Physics

Nicolas Gisin

Published Feb 2, 2018• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In Bohmian mechanics, particles follow continuous trajectories, so two-time position correlations have been well defined. However, Bohmian mechanics predicts the violation of Bell inequalities. Motivated by this fact, we investigate position measurements in Bohmian mechanics by coupling the particles to macroscopic pointers. This explains the violation of Bell inequalities despite two-time position correlations. We relate this fact to so-called surrealistic trajectories that, in our model, correspond to slowly moving pointers. Next, we emphasize that Bohmian mechanics, which does not distinguish between microscopic and macroscopic systems, implies that the quantum weirdness of quantum physics also shows up at the macro-scale. Finally, we discuss the fact that Bohmian mechanics is attractive to philosophers but not so much to physicists and argue that the Bohmian community is responsible for the latter.

DOI
10.3390/e20020105

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In Bohmian mechanics, particles follow continuous trajectories, so two-time position correlations have been well defined. However, Bohmian mechanics predicts the violation of Bell inequalities. Motivated by this fact, we investigate position measurements in Bohmian mechanics by coupling the particles to macroscopic pointers. This explains the violation of Bell inequalities despite two-time position correlations. We relate this fact to so-called surrealistic trajectories that, in our model, correspond to slowly moving pointers. Next, we emphasize that Bohmian mechanics, which does not distinguish between microscopic and macroscopic systems, implies that the quantum weirdness of quantum physics also shows up at the macro-scale. Finally, we discuss the fact that Bohmian mechanics is attractive to philosophers but not so much to physicists and argue that the Bohmian community is responsible for the latter.
The violation of Bell type inequalities in quantum systems manifests that quantum states cannot be described by classical probability distributions. Yet, Bohmian mechanics is a realistic, non-local theory of classical particle trajectories that is claimed to be indistinguishable by observations from more traditional approaches to quantum mechanics. We set up a spatial version of the GHZ system with qubits realised as positional observables that demonstrates that the Bohmian theory fails to match predictions of textbook quantum mechanics (and most likely experients) unless enlarged by a microscopic theory of collapse of the wave function after observation. For this discrepancy to occur it is essential that positions at different times do not commute.
The popular impression of Bohmian mechanics is that it is standard quantum mechanics with the addition of some extra gadgets---exact particle positions and a guiding equation for particle trajectories---the advantages being that the gadgets pave the way for a resolution of the measurement problem that eschews state vector reduction while restoring the determinism lost in standard quantum mechanics. In fact, the Bohmian mechanics departs in significant ways from standard quantum mechanics. By itself this is not a basis for criticism; indeed, it makes Bohmian mechanics all the more interesting. But Bohmian mechanics is not, as the popular impression would have it, empirically equivalent to standard quantum mechanics in terms of probabilistic predictions for the outcomes of measurements of quantum observables. Indeed, in physically important applications to systems for which standard quantum mechanics delivers empirically well-confirmed probabilistic predictions, the sophisticated form of Bohmian mechanics designed to prove the global existence of Bohmian particle trajectories fails to deliver unequivocal predictions---of even a probabilistic variety---for the future behavior of said systems. Possible responses to this lacuna are discussed.
Bohmian mechanics is a theory that provides a consistent explanation of quantum phenomena in terms of point particles whose motion is guided by the wave function. In this theory, the state of a system of particles is defined by the actual positions of the particles and the wave function of the system; and the state of the system evolves deterministically. Thus, the Bohmian state can be compared with the state in classical mechanics, which is given by the positions and momenta of all the particles, and which also evolves deterministically. However, while in classical mechanics it is usually taken for granted and considered unproblematic that the state is, at least in principle, measurable, this is not the case in Bohmian mechanics. Due to the linearity of the quantum dynamical laws, one essential component of the Bohmian state, the wave function, is not directly measurable. Moreover, it turns out that the measurement of the other component of the state — the positions of the particles — must be mediated by the wave function; a fact that in turn implies that the positions of the particles, though measurable, are constrained by absolute uncertainty. This is the key to understanding how Bohmian mechanics, despite being deterministic, can account for all quantum predictions, including quantum randomness and uncertainty.
The article addresses the debate about the empirical status of particles versus wave functions in Bohmian quantum mechanics. It thereby clarifies questions and misconceptions about the role of the particles in the measurement process, the (un)reliability of position measurements (surrealistic trajectories), and the limited empirical access to particle positions (absolute uncertainty). Taking the ontological commitment of Bohmian mechanics seriously, all relevant empirical results follow from an analysis of the theory in terms of particle motions. Finally, we address the question of why particle motions rather than patterns in the wave function would be the supervenience base of conscious experience.
The Bohmian interpretation of quantum mechanics adds particle trajectories to the wave function and ensures that the probability distribution of the particle positions agrees with quantum mechanics at any time. This is not sufficient to avoid contradictions with quantum mechanics. There are correlations between particle positions at different times which cannot be reproduced with real particle trajectories. A simple rearrangement of an experimental test of the Bell-CHSH inequality demonstrates this.