Causal Interpretation of the Free Quantum Particle
Requires a Wolfram Notebook System
Interact on desktop, mobile and cloud with the free Wolfram Player or other Wolfram Language products.
A solution of the one-dimensional free Schrödinger equation leads to a time-dependent Gaussian wave packet (unnormalized, ) with initial width and group velocity in space. According to the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory, the probability of finding the particle within a spatial interval decreases with time as the wave packet disperses. In the causal interpretation of quantum theory of David Bohm, the wavefunction is a real wave in configuration space. With this assumption it could be shown that a quantum particle possesses well-defined positions and velocities at all times. According to the causal interpretation there is a quantum force proportional to a quantum potential that guides the quantum particle inside the wave packet.
[more]
Contributed by: Klaus von Bloh (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
F. J. Belinfante, A Survey of Hidden-Variables Theories, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1973.
P. R. Holland, The Quantum Theory of Motion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Permanent Citation