14 - de Broglie–Bohm, delayed-choice double-slit experiment, and density matrix

Summary

I will try to interest you in the de Broglie–Bohm version of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. It is, in my opinion, very instructive. It is experimentally equivalent to the usual version insofar as the latter is unambiguous. But it does not require, in its very formulation, a vague division of the world into ‘system’ and ‘apparatus,’ nor of history into ‘measurement’ and ‘nonmeasurement.’ So it applies to the world at large, and not just to idealized laboratory procedures. Indeed the de Broglie–Bohm theory is sharp where the usual one is fuzzy, and general where the usual one is special. This is not a systematic exposition, but only an illustration of the ideas with a particularly nice example, and then some remarks on the role of the density matrix – in tribute to the title of this conference.

No one more eloquently than John A. Wheeler has presented the delayed-choice double slit experiment. A pulsed particle source S (see Fig. 1) is so feeble that not more than one particle is emitted per pulse. The associated wave pulse B falls on a screen with slits 1 and 2. The transmitted pulses B′ are focussed by off-centred lenses into intersecting plane wave trains which fall finally on particle counters C₁ and C₂ – unless a photographic plate P is pushed into the region where the two wave trains interpenetrate. The decision, to interpose the plate or not, is made only after the pulse has passed the slits.