Properties of the trajectories in Bohmian mechanics

Karin Berndl, Detlef D�rr, Sheldon Goldstein +2 more

Dmitry Nerukh, John H. Frederick

Sayantan Das, Daniel S. Dahl, Daniel Peace +6 more

While the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics does not assign definite trajectories to particles, the Bohmian interpretation does. Only recently has an operational method for reconciling Bohmian mechanics with relativity been proposed. Here, we experimentally reconstruct relativistic Bohmian trajectories of a single photon in a Michelson-Sagnac interferometer, where counter-propagating probability amplitudes interfere head-on at the speed of light. As predicted by the relativistic Bohmian theory, we observe subluminal and superluminal features of the Bohmian trajectories of the photon traversing through the fringes. Our work provides experimental access to relativistic Bohmian mechanics and enables exploration of its unusual and counterintuitive properties.

Detlef Duerr, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka +1 more

Bohmian mechanics is a theory about point particles moving along trajectories. It has the property that in a world governed by Bohmian mechanics, observers see the same statistics for experimental results as predicted by quantum mechanics. Bohmian mechanics thus provides an explanation of quantum mechanics. Moreover, the Bohmian trajectories are defined in a non-conspiratorial way by a few simple laws.

Andrei Yu. Khrennikov