Particle detection and non-detection in a quantum time of arrival measurement

The standard time-of-arrival distribution cannot reproduce both the temporal and the spatial profile of the modulus squared of the time-evolved wave function for an arbitrary initial state. In particular, the time-of-arrival distribution gives a non-vanishing probability even if the wave function is zero at a given point for all values of time. This poses a problem in the standard formulation of quantum mechanics where one quantizes a classical observable and uses its spectral resolution to calculate the corresponding distribution. In this work, we show that the modulus squared of the time-evolved wave function is in fact contained in one of the degenerate eigenfunctions of the quantized time-of-arrival operator. This generalizes our understanding of quantum arrival phenomenon where particle detection is not a necessary requirement, thereby providing a direct link between time-of-arrival quantization and the outcomes of the two-slit experiment.     

Weak measurement and Bohmian conditional wave functions

It was recently pointed out and demonstrated experimentally by Lundeen et al. that the wave function of a particle (more precisely, the wave function possessed by each member of an ensemble of identically-prepared particles) can be “directly measured” using weak measurement. Here it is shown that if this same technique is applied, with appropriate post-selection, to one particle from a perhaps entangled multi-particle system, the result is precisely the so-called “conditional wave function” of Bohmian mechanics. Thus, a plausibly operationalist method for defining the wave function of a quantum mechanical sub-system corresponds to the natural definition of a sub-system wave function which Bohmian mechanics uniquely makes possible. Similarly, a weak-measurement-based procedure for directly measuring a sub-system’s density matrix should yield, under appropriate circumstances, the Bohmian “conditional density matrix” as opposed to the standard reduced density matrix. Experimental arrangements to demonstrate this behavior–and also thereby reveal the non-local dependence of sub-system state functions on distant interventions–are suggested and discussed.     

Applied Bohmian mechanics

Bohmian mechanics provides an explanation of quantum phenomena in terms of point-like particles guided by wave functions. This review focuses on the use of nonrelativistic Bohmian mechanics to address practical problems, rather than on its interpretation. Although the Bohmian and standard quantum theories have different formalisms, both give exactly the same predictions for all phenomena. Fifteen years ago, the quantum chemistry community began to study the practical usefulness of Bohmian mechanics. Since then, the scientific community has mainly applied it to study the (unitary) evolution of single-particle wave functions, either by developing efficient quantum trajectory algorithms or by providing a trajectory-based explanation of complicated quantum phenomena. Here we present a large list of examples showing how the Bohmian formalism provides a useful solution in different forefront research fields for this kind of problems (where the Bohmian and the quantum hydrodynamic formalisms coincide). In addition, this work also emphasizes that the Bohmian formalism can be a useful tool in other types of (nonunitary and nonlinear) quantum problems where the influence of the environment or the nonsimulated degrees of freedom are relevant. This review contains also examples on the use of the Bohmian formalism for the many-body problem, decoherence and measurement processes. The ability of the Bohmian formalism to analyze this last type of problems for (open) quantum systems remains mainly unexplored by the scientific community. The authors of this review are convinced that the final status of the Bohmian theory among the scientific community will be greatly influenced by its potential success in those types of problems that present nonunitary and/or nonlinear quantum evolutions. A brief introduction of the Bohmian formalism and some of its extensions are presented in the last part of this review.     

Weak Value,Quasiprobability and Bohmian Mechanics

We clarify the significance of quasiprobability (QP) in quantum mechanics that is relevant in describing physical quantities associated with a transition process. Our basic quantity is Aharonov’s weak value, from which the QP can be defined up to a certain ambiguity parameterized by a complex number. Unlike the conventional probability, the QP allows us to treat two noncommuting observables consistently, and this is utilized to embed the QP in Bohmian mechanics such that its equivalence to quantum mechanics becomes more transparent. We also show that, with the help of the QP, Bohmian mechanics can be recognized as an ontological model with a certain type of contextuality.     

Convergence characteristics of a domain decomposition scheme for approximation of quantum forces

We investigate the convergence characteristics of a domain decomposition scheme to approximately compute quantum forces in the context of semiclassical Bohmian mechanics. The study is empirical in nature. Errors in the approximate quantum forces are compiled while relevant parameters in the numerical scheme are systematically changed. The compiled errors are analyzed to extract underlying trends. Our analysis shows that the number of Bohmian particles used in discretization has relatively weak influence on the error, while the length scale of interaction among subdomains controls the error in most cases. More precisely, the overall numerical error decreases as the length scale of interaction among subdomains decreases, if the error due to the truncation of the tail of the probability density distribution is adequately controlled. Our results suggest that it may be necessary to develop an efficient method to effectively control the error due to the truncation of the tail. Further studies, especially rigorous mathematical ones, should follow to understand and improve the behavior of the scheme.     

Typicality vs. Probability in Trajectory-Based Formulations of Quantum Mechanics

Bohmian mechanics represents the universe as a set of paths with a probability measure defined on it. The way in which a mathematical model of this kind can explain the observed phenomena of the universe is examined in general. It is shown that the explanation does not make use of the full probability measure, but rather of a suitable set function deriving from it, which defines relative typicality between single-time cylinder sets. Such a set function can also be derived directly from the standard quantum formalism, without the need of an underlying probability measure. The key concept for this derivation is the quantum typicality rule, which can be considered as a generalization of the Born rule. The result is a new formulation of quantum mechanics, in which particles follow definite trajectories, but which is based only on the standard formalism of quantum mechanics.     

On the Weak Measurement of Velocity in Bohmian Mechanics

In a recent article (Wiseman in New J. Phys. 9:165, 2007), Wiseman has proposed the use of so-called weak measurements for the determination of the velocity of a quantum particle at a given position, and has shown that according to quantum mechanics the result of such a procedure is the Bohmian velocity of the particle. Although Bohmian mechanics is empirically equivalent to variants based on velocity formulas different from the Bohmian one, and although it has been proven that the velocity in Bohmian mechanics is not measurable, we argue here for the somewhat paradoxical conclusion that Wiseman’s weak measurement procedure indeed constitutes a genuine measurement of velocity in Bohmian mechanics. We reconcile the apparent contradictions and elaborate on some of the different senses of measurement at play here.     

A New Way for the Extension of Quantum Theory: Non-Bohmian Quantum Potentials

Quantum Mechanics is a good example of a successful theory. Most of atomic phenomena are described well by quantum mechanics and cases such as Lamb Shift that are not described by quantum mechanics, are described by quantum electrodynamics. Of course, at the nuclear level, because of some complications, it is not clear that we can claim the same confidence. One way of taking these complications and corrections into account seems to be a modification of the standard quantum theory. In this paper and its follow ups we consider a straightforward way of extending quantum theory. Our method is based on a Bohmian approach. We show that this approach has the essential ability for extending quantum theory, and we do this by introducing “non-Bohmian” forms for the quantum potential.     

On the Bohmian quantum friction

The problem of quantum friction in the framework of Bohmian quantum mechanics is studied. The appropriate equations for such a system is written and solved exactly for some cases. Also two approximate solutions are found which represent the transition of a system from an upper state to the ground state caused by the friction. The physical nature of these solutions are examined.     

Tomographic entropy and cosmology

The probability representation of quantum mechanics including propagators and tomograms of quantum states of the universe and its application to quantum gravity and cosmology are reviewed. The minisuperspaces modeled by oscillator, free pointlike particle and repulsive oscillator are considered. The notion of tomographic entropy and its properties are used to find some inequalities for the tomographic probability determining the quantum state of the universe. The sense of the inequality as a lower bound for the entropy is clarified.     

On the geometrization of quantum mechanics

Nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is commonly formulated in terms of wavefunctions (probability amplitudes) obeying the static and the time-dependent Schrödinger equations (SE). Despite the success of this representation of the quantum world a wave–particle duality concept is required to reconcile the theory with observations (experimental measurements). A first solution to this dichotomy was introduced in the de Broglie–Bohm theory according to which a pilot-wave (solution of the SE) is guiding the evolution of particle trajectories. Here, I propose a geometrization of quantum mechanics that describes the time evolution of particles as geodesic lines in a curved space, whose curvature is induced by the quantum potential. This formulation allows therefore the incorporation of all quantum effects into the geometry of space–time, as it is the case for gravitation in the general relativity.     

A Stochastic Mechanics Based on Bohm‧s Theory and its Connection with Quantum Mechanics

We construct a stochastic mechanics by replacing Bohm‧s first-order ordinary differential equation of motion with a stochastic differential equation where the stochastic process is defined by the set of Bohmian momentum time histories from an ensemble of particles. We show that, if the stochastic process is a purely random process with n-th order joint probability density in the form of products of delta functions, then the stochastic mechanics is equivalent to quantum mechanics in the sense that the former yields the same position probability density as the latter. However, for a particular non-purely random process, we show that the stochastic mechanics is not equivalent to quantum mechanics. Whether the equivalence between the stochastic mechanics and quantum mechanics holds for all purely random processes but breaks down for all non-purely random processes remains an open question.     

Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Information

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.     

Classical formulation of quantum mechanics

The concept of quantum state is given in terms of classical probability for position in squeezed and rotated classical reference frames in phase space. Stationary states and energy levels of the quantum system are obtained in a classical formulation of quantum mechanics. The positive probability density of the harmonic oscillator position is obtained by solving a new eigenvalue equation of standard quantum mechanics instead of the Schrödinger equation. The orthogonality and completeness relations are found for the eigendistributions.     

On the Quantum Probability Flux Through Surfaces

We remark that the often ignored quantum probability current is fundamental for a genuine understanding of scattering phenomena and, in particular, for the statistics of the time and position of the first exit of a quantum particle from a given region, which may be simply expressed in terms of the current. This simple formula for these statistics does not appear as such in the literature. It is proposed that the formula, which is very different from the usual quantum mechanical measurement formulas, be verified experimentally. A full understanding of the quantum current and the associated formula is provided by Bohmian mechanics.     

Unstable trajectories and the quantum mechanical uncertainty

There is still an ongoing discussion about various seemingly contradictory aspects of classical particle motion and its quantum mechanical counterpart. One of the best accepted viewpoints that intend to bridge the gap is the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation. A major issue there is to regard wave functions as probability amplitudes (usually for the position of a particle). However, the literature also reports on approaches that claim a trajectory for any quantum mechanical particle, Bohmian mechanics probably being the most prominent one among these ideas. We introduce a way to calculate trajectories as well, but our crucial ingredient is their well controlled local (thus also momentaneous) degree of instability. By construction, at every moment their unpredictability, i.e., their local separation rates of neighboring trajectories, is governed by the local value of the given modulus square of a wave function. We present extensive numerical simulations of the H and He atom, and for some velocity-related quantities, namely angular momentum and total energy, we inspect their agreement with the values appearing in wave mechanics. Further, we interpret the archetypal double slit interference experiment in the spirit of our findings. We also discuss many-particle problems far beyond He, which guides us to a variety of possible applications.     

低振动激发HeI2分子振动预离解寿命和终转动态分布

用含时黄金规则波包法，对ＨｅＩ２分子在低初始振动激发（ｖ＜１２）态下振动预离解动力学作了全维量子力学计算。所预言的总衰变宽度和寿命与谱线宽和皮秒时间分解的实时态－态测量外推数据符合得相当好。计算的总衰变宽度对初始振动态ｖ是敏感的并呈现一种非线性关系。结果表明低振动激发ＨｅＩ２分子衰变模式仍应是量子力学的。除终态相互作用对决定终转动分布有重要作用以外，首次发现，低振动激发态的初始特性也能显著影响终转动态分布。用Ｉ２的转动常数对ｖ的关系合理地解释了这个独特现象     

Dissipative Bohmian mechanics within the Caldirola–Kanai framework: A trajectory analysis of wave-packet dynamics in viscid media

Classical viscid media are quite common in our everyday life. However, we are not used to find such media in quantum mechanics, and much less to analyze their effects on the dynamics of quantum systems. In this regard, the Caldirola–Kanai time-dependent Hamiltonian constitutes an appealing model, accounting for friction without including environmental fluctuations (as it happens, for example, with quantum Brownian motion). Here, a Bohmian analysis of the associated friction dynamics is provided in order to understand how a hypothetical, purely quantum viscid medium would act on a wave packet from a (quantum) hydrodynamic viewpoint. To this purpose, a series of paradigmatic contexts have been chosen, such as the free particle, the motion under the action of a linear potential, the harmonic oscillator, or the superposition of two coherent wave packets. Apart from their analyticity, these examples illustrate interesting emerging behaviors, such as localization by “quantum freezing” or a particular type of quantum–classical correspondence. The reliability of the results analytically determined has been checked by means of numerical simulations, which has served to investigate other problems lacking of such analyticity (e.g., the coherent superpositions).