2003/08/06 by Detlef Dürr, Sheldon Goldstein, Nino Zangh\`ı · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1023/b:joss.0000037234.80916.d0
77 pages
arxiv created 2003/08/06 · arxiv updated 2016/08/16
Bohmian mechnaics is the most naively obvious embedding imaginable of Schrödingers's equation into a completely coherent physical theory. It describes a world in which particles move in a highly non-Newtonian sort of way, one which may at first appear to have little to do with the spectrum of predictions of quantum mechanics. It turns out, however, that as a consequence of the defining dynamical equations of Bohmian mechanics, when a system has wave function ψ its configuration is typically random, with probability density ρ given by |ψ|2, the quantum equilibrium distribution. It also turns out that the entire quantum formalism, operators as observables and all the rest, naturally emerges in Bohmian mechanics from the analysis of ``measurements.'' This analysis reveals the status of operators as observables in the description of quantum phenomena, and facilitates a clear view of the range of applicability of the usual quantum mechanical formulas.