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arXiv:2512.11772

A Vlasov-Bohm approach to Quantum Mechanics for statistical systems

Pedro Luis Grande, Raul Carlos Fadanelli, Maarten Vos

quant-phSubmitted Dec 12, 2025• Announced Dec 15, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

Quantum mechanics is the most successful theory to describe microscopic phenomena. It was derived in different ways over the past 100 years by Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Feynman. At the same time, other interpretations have been suggested, including the Bohm-De Broglie interpretation and the so-called Bohmian mechanics. Here, we show that Bohmian mechanics, which utilizes the concept of the Bohm quantum potential, can also serve as a starting point for quantizing classical non-relativistic systems. By incorporating the Bohm quantum potential into the Vlasov framework, we obtain a mean-field theory that captures the corpuscular nature of matter, in agreement with quantum mechanics within the Random Phase Approximation (RPA).

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Quantum mechanics is the most successful theory to describe microscopic phenomena. It was derived in different ways over the past 100 years by Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Feynman. At the same time, other interpretations have been suggested, including the Bohm-De Broglie interpretation and the so-called Bohmian mechanics. Here, we show that Bohmian mechanics, which utilizes the concept of the Bohm quantum potential, can also serve as a starting point for quantizing classical non-relativistic systems. By incorporating the Bohm quantum potential into the Vlasov framework, we obtain a mean-field theory that captures the corpuscular nature of matter, in agreement with quantum mechanics within the Random Phase Approximation (RPA).
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.
Acknowledgments..................................................................................................388 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................389 The predictive power of quantum mechanics (QM) plays a role of paramount importance in the understanding of matter and its fundamental laws [8]. Despite this great success, the standard formulation of QM, usually known as the Copenhagen interpretation [10], has always suffered from interpretational difficulties [7]. For this reason, David Bohm introduced in the 1950s an alternative version [3], which has experienced a revitalization in the past few years, supported by a new computationally oriented point of view. The so-called Bohmian mechanics (BM) constitutes a true theory of quantum dynamics [6,18], and many interesting practical applications, including the analysis of the tunneling mechanism [9], scattering processes [12,14], or the classicalquantum correspondence [13], just to name a few, have been revisited using this novel point of view.
Since its inception Bohmian mechanics has been generally regarded as a hidden-variable theory aimed at providing an objective description of quantum phenomena. To date, this rather narrow conception of Bohm’s proposal has caused it more rejection than acceptance. Now, after 65 years of Bohmian mechanics, should still be such an interpretational aspect the prevailing appraisal? Why not favoring a more pragmatic view, as a legitimate picture of quantum mechanics, on equal footing in all respects with any other more conventional quantum picture? These questions are used here to introduce a discussion on an alternative way to deal with Bohmian mechanics at present, enhancing its aspect as an efficient and useful picture or formulation to tackle, explore, describe and explain quantum phenomena where phase and correlation ( entanglement ) are key elements. This discussion is presented through two complementary blocks. The first block is aimed at briefly revisiting the historical context that gave rise to the appearance of Bohmian mechanics, and how this approach or analogous ones have been used in different physical contexts. This discussion is used to emphasize a more pragmatic view to the detriment of the more conventional hidden-variable (ontological) approach that has been a leitmotif within the quantum foundations. The second block focuses on some particular formal aspects of Bohmian mechanics supporting the view presented here, with special emphasis on the physical meaning of the local phase field and the associated velocity field encoded within the wave function. As an illustration, a simple model of Young’s two-slit experiment is considered. The simplicity of this model allows to understand in an easy manner how the information conveyed by the Bohmian formulation relates to other more conventional concepts in quantum mechanics. This sort of pedagogical application is also aimed at showing the potential interest to introduce Bohmian mechanics in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses as a working tool rather than merely an alternative interpretation.
In this paper we generalize the ideas of de Broglie and Bohm to the relativistic case which is based on the relativistic Schrödinger equation. In this regard, the relativistic forms of the guidance equation and quantum potential are derived. In our formulation of Relativistic Bohmian Mechanic, the quantum equilibrium hypothesis (ρ=∣ψ∣2)(ρ=|ψ|^{2})(ρ=∣ψ∣2) and the probabilistic interpretation of the wave function are not an intrinsic feature of the theory as well as expected from the theoretical structure of Bohmian mechanics but still we can extract the statistical predictions of this theory. In fact with assuming the quantum equilibrium hypothesis in non-relativistic case and then acceleration to particles by an external field we go to the relativistic regime. So in this case the quantum equilibrium would not be established and theory will have testable predictions that can be experienced, or this will be compared to the result of relativistic quantum mechanics. In some simple cases such calculations have been done.
Bohmian mechanics also known as de Broglie-Bohm theory is the most popular alternative approach to quantum mechanics. Whereas the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics is based on the complementarity principle Bohmian mechanics assumes that both particle and wave are concrete physical objects. In 1993 Peter Holland has written an ardent account on the plausibility of the de Broglie-Bohm theory. He proved that it fully reproduces quantum mechanics if the initial particle distribution is consistent with a solution of the Schrödinger equation. Which may be the reasons that Bohmian mechanics has not yet found global acceptance? In this article it will be shown that predicted properties of atoms and molecules are in conflict with experimental findings. Moreover it will be demonstrated that repeatedly published ensembles of trajectories illustrating double slit diffraction processes do not agree with quantum mechanics. The credibility of a theory is undermined when recognizably wrong data presented frequently over years are finally not declared obsolete.
In this article, we investigate Bohm's view of quantum theory, especially Bohm's quantum potential, from a new perspective. We develop a quasi-Newtonian approach to Bohmian mechanics. We show that to arrive at Bohmian formulation of quantum mechanics, there is no necessity to start from the Schrödinger equation. We also obtain an equation that restricts the possible forms of quantum potential and determines the functional form of it without appealing to the wave function and the Schrödinger equation. Finally, we discuss about the significance of quantum potential in the conceptual structure of quantum theory.