This paper is an introduction to the ideas of Bohmian mechanics, an interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the observer plays no fundamental role. Bohmian mechanics describes, instead of probabilities of measurement results, objective microscopic events. In recent years, Bohmian mechanics has attracted increasing attention by researchers. The form of a dialogue allows me to address questions about the Bohmian view that often arise.
This paper is an introduction to the ideas of Bohmian mechanics, an interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the observer plays no fundamental role. Bohmian mechanics describes, instead of probabilities of measurement results, objective microscopic events. In recent years, Bohmian mechanics has attracted increasing attention by researchers. The form of a dialogue allows me to address questions about the Bohmian view that often arise.
Many recent results suggest that quantum theory is about information, and that quantum theory is best understood as arising from principles concerning information and information processing. At the same time, by far the simplest version of quantum mechanics, Bohmian mechanics, is concerned, not with information but with the behavior of an objective microscopic reality given by particles and their positions. What I would like to do here is to examine whether, and to what extent, the importance of information, observation, and the like in quantum theory can be understood from a Bohmian perspective. I would like to explore the hypothesis that the idea that information plays a special role in physics naturally emerges in a Bohmian universe. 1 Introduction: The Status
We formulate Bohmian mechanics (BM) such that the main objects of concern are macroscopic phenomena, while microscopic particle trajectories only play an auxiliary role. Such a formulation makes it easy to understand why BM always makes the same measurable predictions as standard quantum mechanics (QM), irrespective of the details of microscopic trajectories. Relativistic quantum field theory (QFT) is interpreted as an effective long-distance theory that at smaller distances must be replaced by some more fundamental theory. Analogy with condensed-matter physics suggests that this more fundamental theory could have a form of nonrelativistic QM, offering a simple generic resolution of an apparent conflict between BM and relativistic QFT.
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.
The ontological aspect of Bohmian mechanics, as a hidden-variable theory that provides us with an objective description of a quantum world without observers, is widely known. Yet its practicality is getting more and more acceptance and relevance, for it has proven to be an efficient and useful resource to tackle, explore, describe and explain such phenomena. This practical aspect emerges precisely when the pragmatic application of the formalism prevails over any other interpretational question, still a matter of debate and controversy. In this regard, the purpose here is to show and discuss how Bohmian mechanics emphasizes in a natural manner a series of dynamical features difficult to find out through other quantum approaches. This arises from the fact that Bohmian mechanics allows us to establish a direct link between the dynamics exhibited by quantum systems and the local variations of the quantum phase associated with their state. To illustrate these facts, simple models of two physically insightful quantum phenomena have been chosen, namely, the dispersion of a free Gaussian wave packet and Young-type two-slit interference. As it is shown, the outcomes from their analysis render a novel, alternative understanding of the dynamics displayed by these quantum phenomena in terms of the underlying local velocity field that connects the probability density with the quantum flux. This field, nothing but the so-called guidance condition in standard Bohmian mechanics, thus acquires a prominent role to understand quantum dynamics, as the mechanism responsible for such dynamics. This goes beyond the passive role typically assigned to this field in Bohmian mechanics, where traditionally trajectories and quantum potentials have received more attention instead.
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.
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.