Interference in Bohmian Mechanics with Complex Action

In recent years, intensive effort has gone into developing numerical tools for exact quantum mechanical calculations that are based on Bohmian mechanics. As part of this effort we have recently developed as alternative formulation of Bohmian mechanics in which the quantum action, S, is taken to be complex [JCP {125}, 231103 (2006)]. In the alternative formulation there is a significant reduction in the magnitude of the quantum force as compared with the conventional Bohmian formulation, at the price of propagating complex trajectories. In this paper we show that Bohmian mechanics with complex action is able to overcome the main computational limitation of conventional Bohmian methods -- the propagation of wavefunctions once nodes set in. In the vicinity of nodes, the quantum force in conventional Bohmian formulations exhibits rapid oscillations that pose severe difficulties for existing numerical schemes. We show that within complex Bohmian mechanics, multiple complex initial conditions can lead to the same real final position, allowing for the description of nodes as a sum of the contribution from two or more crossing trajectories. The idea is illustrated on the reflection amplitude from a one-dimensional Eckart barrier. We believe that trajectory crossing, although in contradiction to the conventional Bohmian trajectory interpretation, provides an important new tool for dealing with the nodal problem in Bohmian methods

Unified derivation of Bohmian methods and the incorporation of interference effects

We present a unified derivation of Bohmian methods that serves as a common starting point for the derivative propagation method (DPM), Bohmian mechanics with complex action (BOMCA) and the zero-velocity complex action method (ZEVCA). The unified derivation begins with the ansatz $\psi=e^{\frac{iS}{\hbar}}$ where the action, $S$, is taken to be complex and the quantum force is obtained by writing a hierarchy of equations of motion for the phase partial derivatives. We demonstrate how different choices of the trajectory velocity field yield different formulations such as DPM, BOMCA and ZEVCA. The new derivation is used for two purposes. First, it serves as a common basis for comparing the role of the quantum force in the DPM and BOMCA formulations. Second, we use the new derivation to show that superposing the contributions of real, crossing trajectories yields a nodal pattern essentially identical to that of the exact quantum wavefunction. The latter result suggests a promising new approach to deal with the challenging problem of nodes in Bohmian mechanics