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AIP conference proceedings

Welcher Weg Experiments from the Bohm Perspective

Basil J. Hiley

Published Jan 1, 2006• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We re‐examine the claim made by Englert, Scully, Süssman and Walther that in certain ‘Welcher Weg’ (Which Way) interference experiments, the Bohm trajectories behave in such a bizarre and unacceptable way that they must be considered as unreliable and even ‘surreal’. We show that this claim cannot be correct and is based on an incorrect use of the Bohm approach.

DOI
10.1063/1.2158718

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We re‐examine the claim made by Englert, Scully, Süssman and Walther that in certain ‘Welcher Weg’ (Which Way) interference experiments, the Bohm trajectories behave in such a bizarre and unacceptable way that they must be considered as unreliable and even ‘surreal’. We show that this claim cannot be correct and is based on an incorrect use of the Bohm approach.
The delayed choice experiments of the type introduced by Wheeler and extended by Englert, Scully, Süssmann and Walther [ESSW], and others, have formed a rich area for investigating the puzzling behaviour of particles undergoing quantum interference. The surprise provided by the original delayed choice experiment, led Wheeler to the conclu-sion that “no phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon”, a radical explanation which implied that “the past has no existence except as it is recorded in the present”. However Bohm, Dewdney and Hiley have shown that the Bohm interpretation gives a straightforward account of the behaviour of the particle without re-sorting to such a radical explanation. The subsequent modifications of this experiment led both Aharonov and Vaidman and [ESSW] to conclude that the resulting Bohm-type trajectories in these new sit-uations produce unacceptable properties. For example, if a cavity is
The claim of Kocsis et al. to have experimentally determined "photon trajectories" calls for a re-examination of the meaning of "quantum trajectories". We will review the arguments that have been assumed to have established that a trajectory has no meaning in the context of quantum mechanics. We show that the conclusion that the Bohm trajectories should be called "surreal" because they are at "variance with the actual observed track" of a particle is wrong as it is based on a false argument. We also present the results of a numerical investigation of a double Stern-Gerlach experiment which shows clearly the role of the spin within the Bohm formalism and discuss situations where the appearance of the quantum potential is open to direct experimental exploration.
Abstract In a recent paper, Englert et al. reject Bohm's reinterpretation of quantum mechanics as "surrealistic." Responses to this by Dewdney et al. and Durr et al. have generally missed the point of this somewhat strange characterization of the interpretation. In this paper I explain the experiment which is supposed to illustrate the surrealism. I argue that what is really being objected to is the non-locality of the interpretation. While this is an undesirable feature of Bohm's interpretation, it is not a feature of which the standard interpretation gives a more satisfactory account.