Bohmian mechanics as the foundation of quantum mechanics

Abstract

In order to arrive at Bohmian mechanics from standard nonrelativistic quantum me-chanics one need do almost nothing! One need only complete the usual quantum descrip-tion in what is really the most obvious way: by simply including the positions of the particles of a quantum system as part of the state description of that system, allowing these positions to evolve in the most natural way. The entire quantum formalism, includ-ing the uncertainty principle and quantum randomness, emerges from an analysis of this evolution. This can be expressed succinctly|though in fact not succinctly enough|by declaring that the essential innovation of Bohmian mechanics is the insight that particles move! 1 Bohmian Mechanics is Minimal Is it not clear from the smallness of the scintillation on the screen that we have to do with a particle? And is it not clear, from the diraction and interference 1 patterns, that the motion of the particle is directed by a wave? De Broglie showed in detail how the motion of a particle, passing through just one of tw