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arXiv:1602.04932 · Journal of Physics Conference Series

Emergent quantum mechanics without wavefunctions

J Mesa Pascasio, S Fussy, H Schwabl, G Grössing

Published Mar 1, 2016• 1 citation
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Abstract

We present our model of an Emergent Quantum Mechanics which can be characterized by "realism without pre-determination". This is illustrated by our analytic description and corresponding computer simulations of Bohmian-like "surreal" trajectories, which are obtained classically, i.e. without the use of any quantum mechanical tool such as wavefunctions. However, these trajectories do not necessarily represent ontological paths of particles but rather mappings of the probability density flux in a hydrodynamical sense. Modelling emergent quantum mechanics in a high-low intesity double slit scenario gives rise to the "quantum sweeper effect" with a characteristic intensity pattern. This phenomenon should be experimentally testable via weak measurement techniques.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/701/1/012036

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We present our model of an Emergent Quantum Mechanics which can be characterized by "realism without pre-determination". This is illustrated by our analytic description and corresponding computer simulations of Bohmian-like "surreal" trajectories, which are obtained classically, i.e. without the use of any quantum mechanical tool such as wavefunctions. However, these trajectories do not necessarily represent ontological paths of particles but rather mappings of the probability density flux in a hydrodynamical sense. Modelling emergent quantum mechanics in a high-low intesity double slit scenario gives rise to the "quantum sweeper effect" with a characteristic intensity pattern. This phenomenon should be experimentally testable via weak measurement techniques.
A research program within the scope of theories on "Emergent Quantum Mechanics" is presented, which has gained some momentum in recent years. Via the modeling of a quantum system as a non-equilibrium steady-state maintained by a permanent throughput of energy from the zero-point vacuum, the quantum is considered as an emergent system. We implement a specific "bouncer-walker" model in the context of an assumed sub-quantum statistical physics, in analogy to the results of experiments by Couder and Fort on a classical wave-particle duality. We can thus give an explanation of various quantum mechanical features and results on the basis of a "21st century classical physics", such as the appearance of Planck's constant, the Schrödinger equation, etc. An essential result is given by the proof that averaged particle trajectories' behaviors correspond to a specific type of anomalous diffusion termed "ballistic" diffusion on a sub-quantum level. It is further demonstrated both analytically and with the aid of computer simulations that our model provides explanations for various quantum effects such as double-slit or n-slit interference. We show the averaged trajectories emerging from our model to be identical to Bohmian trajectories, albeit without the need to invoke complex wavefunctions or any other quantum mechanical tool. Finally, the model provides new insights into the origins of entanglement, and, in particular, into the phenomenon of a "systemic" non-locality.
The ontological interpretation of Bohmian quantum mechanics, through a particle's visual trajectory of motion, reconstitutes realism and determinism (and thus causality) in a quantum system. There also exists a similar but distinctive class of interpretation under Bohmian quantum mechanics, called the hydrodynamical interpretation. Here, the trajectories of the probability fluid flow play a significant computational role. The flow of the probability density visually helps chemists and engineers to solve the corresponding quantum hydrodynamical equations of motion. This particular computational scheme for the numerical solutions is called ‘the quantum trajectory method.' The success of the quantum trajectory method demonstrates the power of visual illustrations and metaphors in representing and analyzing quantum systems.
Bohmian mechanics is endowed with an ontological package that supposedly allows to solve the main interpretational problems of quantum mechanics. We are concerned in this work by the emergence of classicality from the quantum mechanical substrate. We will argue that although being superficially attractive, the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation does not shed new light on the quantum-to-classical transition. This is due to nature of the dynamical law of Bohmian mechanics by which the particles follow the streamlines of the probability flow. As a consequence, Bohmian trajectories can be highly non-classical even when the wavefunction propagates along classical trajectories, as happens in semiclassical systems. In order to account for classical dynamics, Bohmian mechanics needs non-spreading and non-interfering wave packets: this is achieved for practical purposes by having recourse to decoherence and dense measurements. However one then faces the usual fundamental problems associated with the meaning of reduced density matrices. Moreover the specific assets of the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation – in particular the existence of point-like particles pursuing well-defined trajectories – would play no role in accounting for the emergence of classical dynamics.
Double slit interference is explained with the aid of what we call "21st century classical physics". We model a particle as an oscillator ("bouncer") in a thermal context, which is given by some assumed "zero-point" field of the vacuum. In this way, the quantum is understood as an emergent system, i.e., a steady-state system maintained by a constant throughput of (vacuum) energy. To account for the particle's thermal environment, we introduce a "path excitation field", which derives from the thermodynamics of the zero-point vacuum and which represents all possible paths a particle can take via thermal path fluctuations. The intensity distribution on a screen behind a double slit is calculated, as well as the corresponding trajectories and the probability density current. Further, particular features of the relative phase are shown to be responsible for nonlocal effects not only in ordinary quantum theory, but also in our classical approach.
Weak measurement allows one to empirically determine a set of average trajectories for an ensemble of quantum particles. However, when two particles are entangled, the trajectories of the first particle can depend nonlocally on the position of the second particle. Moreover, the theory describing these trajectories, called Bohmian mechanics, predicts trajectories that were at first deemed "surreal" when the second particle is used to probe the position of the first particle. We entangle two photons and determine a set of Bohmian trajectories for one of them using weak measurements and postselection. We show that the trajectories seem surreal only if one ignores their manifest nonlocality.