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Where does Pilot Wave theory fall?
by samirillian 7y ago
Where does Pilot Wave theory fall?
- klodolph 7y agoMy understanding is that it is possible to conduct an experiment which would invalidate pilot wave theory or confirm it, to the extent that theories are invalidated or confirmed--we just haven't figured out how to conduct the experiment. The article mentions that Bell's inequality was in a similar position in the past.
- IX-103 7y agoWhy does pilot wave theory violate locality -- does it assume that the pilot waves travel faster than light? And if so, is it necessary for the pilot waves to travel faster than light or can they be limited to the speed of light and preserve locality?
- pdonis 7y ago> Why does pilot wave theory violate locality -- does it assume that the pilot waves travel faster than light? Yes. The pilot wave at any given point can be affected instantaneously by changes anywhere else in the universe.
- kgwgk 7y agoBut in this regard the pilot wave is not different from the standard Schroedinger’s wavefunction, is it?
- MiroF 7y agoSchroedinger’s wavefunction isn't sufficient in a relativistic context
- kgwgk 7y agoTrue. To be fair, it's true that the relativistic extensions to Bohmian mechanics are not as advanced as for the "standard" theory. But they are not necessarily impossible and the requirement of a prefered foliation may not be so unacceptable if the history of the universe goes back to a singularity (so there is a "local time since singularity" that gives somes sense to the idea of simultaneity).
- MiroF 7y agoI am not very familiar with Bohmian mechanics/Pilot wave theory, just wanted to make sure what the schro eq is and isn't was clear to everyone
- pdonis 7y agoNo, it isn't. Both are interpretations of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, and in non-relativistic QM there is no speed of light limit.
- marcosdumay 7y agoPilot wave theory is based on the assumption that every particle is interacting with the entire Universe all the time.
- IX-103 7y agoDoes it have to be the simultaneous version of the current universe or can it be the universe as it was distance/c ago? Actually with relativity and all I'm not exactly sure there is a just a single correct definition of the instantaneous state of the universe.
- aeternus 7y agoExperiments have shown that pilot waves would have to travel faster than the speed of light. My understanding of the experiment is as follows: Take two entangled photons, beam them up to satellites far away from each other. The satellites have detectors that measure the polarization angle from 0 to 360 degrees. Since entangled photons have opposite polarization you'd expect an inverted V (red line): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem#/media/File:Bell.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%27s_theorem#/media/File:B... Instead, you get the blue line. Which is weird, because it is basically a cosine curve, and implies that the photons are able to determine the relative angle of the detectors. The crazy part is that this curve still holds even if those detectors are very far apart and you complete the experiment before any information about the relative angles of the detectors would have time to pass from one detector to the other at the speed of light. This is what implies that a pilot wave would have to move faster than the speed of light.
- masteranza 7y ago“Pilot wave” it’s not a valid theory at all. First, the wave-function is not an observable. Secondly, reproducing interference is no big success - classical physics does that all the time.