4 ms·

Let us not forget about Pilot-Wave theory, where it has both particle and wave-like properties simultaneously. In fact, I don't quite get why people are so enam

Let us not forget about Pilot-Wave theory, where it has both particle and wave-like properties simultaneously. In fact, I don't quite get why people are so enamored by these fanciful interpretations when Pilot-Wave is so much more down-to-earth.

madaxe_again 11y ago
I came here to say the same thing - this behaviour is readily explained by a pilot wave formulation of QM, and requires no spookiness. Increasing number of physicists are re-evaluating Bohm and De Broglie's work - I for one think we've been down a 60 year dead-end, which has yielded models, but no plausible mechanism.
- orbifold 11y ago
  I'm fairly certain that you would have a very hard time extending pilot wave theory to Quantum Field theory, although who kowns, maybe it is possible.
  - madaxe_again 11y ago
    It can be - did a graduate paper on the topic some years ago, looking at it through the Dirac sea - and appears others are taking an interest in the topic too - here's a nice paper which gives a good overview: http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/306/1/012047/pdf/1742-6596_306_1_012047.pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/306/1/012047/pdf/1742-65...
ilitirit 11y ago
I'm not really qualified to talk on a technical level about the matter, but besides the distaste some people have for Aether Theories, there are other reasons some scientists don't like PWT, especially as it's demonstrated by the behaviour of oil droplets. The physical, conceptual differences between any quantities describing droplets on one side and the wave function on the other side are clear. The former are observable – you may actually measure what the shape of the droplet looks like; you can't measure the wave function by any apparatus, at least not in a single repetition of the experiment. The former has an objective interpretation; the latter has a probabilistic interpretation, and so on. The wave function just encodes all the probability distributions for actual observables – but the wave function isn't and can't be one of them. http://motls.blogspot.com/2014/07/droplets-and-pilot-waves-vs-quantum.html http://motls.blogspot.com/2014/07/droplets-and-pilot-waves-v...
dghf 11y ago
> In fact, I don't quite get why people are so enamored by these fanciful interpretations when Pilot-Wave is so much more down-to-earth. I thought the difficulty with pilot-wave theory was that it was difficult, perhaps impossible, to reconcile with special relativity.

madaxe_again 11y ago

I came here to say the same thing - this behaviour is readily explained by a pilot wave formulation of QM, and requires no spookiness. Increasing number of physicists are re-evaluating Bohm and De Broglie's work - I for one think we've been down a 60 year dead-end, which has yielded models, but no plausible mechanism.

orbifold 11y ago
I'm fairly certain that you would have a very hard time extending pilot wave theory to Quantum Field theory, although who kowns, maybe it is possible.
- madaxe_again 11y ago
  It can be - did a graduate paper on the topic some years ago, looking at it through the Dirac sea - and appears others are taking an interest in the topic too - here's a nice paper which gives a good overview: http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/306/1/012047/pdf/1742-6596_306_1_012047.pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/306/1/012047/pdf/1742-65...

ilitirit 11y ago

I'm not really qualified to talk on a technical level about the matter, but besides the distaste some people have for Aether Theories, there are other reasons some scientists don't like PWT, especially as it's demonstrated by the behaviour of oil droplets. The physical, conceptual differences between any quantities describing droplets on one side and the wave function on the other side are clear. The former are observable – you may actually measure what the shape of the droplet looks like; you can't measure the wave function by any apparatus, at least not in a single repetition of the experiment. The former has an objective interpretation; the latter has a probabilistic interpretation, and so on. The wave function just encodes all the probability distributions for actual observables – but the wave function isn't and can't be one of them. http://motls.blogspot.com/2014/07/droplets-and-pilot-waves-vs-quantum.html http://motls.blogspot.com/2014/07/droplets-and-pilot-waves-v...

dghf 11y ago

> In fact, I don't quite get why people are so enamored by these fanciful interpretations when Pilot-Wave is so much more down-to-earth. I thought the difficulty with pilot-wave theory was that it was difficult, perhaps impossible, to reconcile with special relativity.