Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2015
Publication Title
Synthese
Abstract
The ontology of Bohmian mechanics includes both the universal wave function (living in 3N-dimensional configuration space) and particles (living in ordinary 3-dimensional physical space). Proposals for understanding the physical significance of the wave function in this theory have included the idea of regarding it as a physically-real field in its 3N-dimensional space, as well as the idea of regarding it as a law of nature. Here we introduce and explore a third possibility in which the configuration space wave function is simply eliminated – replaced by a set of single-particle pilot-wave fields living in ordinary physical space. Such a re-formulation of the Bohmian pilot-wave theory can exactly reproduce the statistical predictions of ordinary quantum theory. But this comes at the rather high ontological price of introducing an infinite network of interacting potential fields (living in 3-dimensional space) which influence the particles’ motion through the pilot-wave fields. We thus introduce an alternative approach which aims at achieving empirical adequacy (like that enjoyed by GRW type theories) with a more modest ontological complexity, and provide some preliminary evidence for optimism regarding the (once popular but prematurely-abandoned) program of trying to replace the (philosophically puzzling) configuration space wave function with a (totally unproblematic) set of fields in ordinary physical space
Keywords
Local beables, Bohmian mechanics, Conditional wave function, Physical space, Configuration space
Volume
192
Issue
10
First Page
3125
Last Page
3151
DOI
doi:10.1007/s11229-014-0577-0
ISSN
1573-0964
Recommended Citation
Norsen, Travis; Marian, Damiano; and Oriols, Xavier, "Can the Wave Function in Configuration Space Be Replaced by Single-Particle Wave Functions in Physical Space?" (2015). Physics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phy_facpubs/20
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.
Included at the request of the publisher: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0577-0.