Pilot Wave Theory: Against the Rest of Quantum Mechanics?

  • #1
manases
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Hi, I was reading about the Pilot Wave theory.

I also found this vid:


Is the Pilot Wave theory against most of the other interpretations of QM?

And what are the main things one needs to accept?
- In pilot wave theory,
--- we have to accept a medium of unknown particles.
--- Universe is determinable
- In Copenhagen theory
--- we have to accept some uncertainty principles
--- we have to accept randomness exists at particle levels

Looking down the line - the pilot wave could evolve to the point when we do understand the medium.
While the Copenhagen theory is fully matured - it just says you can't know now nor in the future.
So basically you can choose to hope in a deterministic Universe or you can abandon this hope?What is the current position on this - which theory do you guys like?
Are there any polls - scientists adhere to the pilot wave theory like 20% or something like this?
I read it was infirmed recently - but not totally - some guys said they didn't found the right values to make it work.
 
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  • #3
manases said:
What is the current position on this - which theory do you guys like?
Quantum mechanics starts to make sense for me on Pilot Wave theory. I always fancied physics to be in the business of physical theories and it ticks that checkbox too.
 
  • #4
Minnesota Joe said:
Quantum mechanics starts to make sense for me on Pilot Wave theory.
Same with me. Moreover, in my case even Copenhagen QM made much more sense after I understood pilot wave theory.
 
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I see some merit in the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation and I appreciate the work which goes into it but pictures like the thumbnail of the video above don't fit well into my mental world of concepts. The picture shows a wavy medium (like water) and a ball which floats in the medium. However, there are big conceptual differences between pilot waves and water waves:
1) Pilot waves don't live in 3D space but in configuration space (which coincides with 3D space only in the case of a single particle).
2) If I remove the ball from the water, the water remains. The pilot wave on the other hand can only coexist with the particle. No particle, no wavy medium.
 
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