Can we make a Bohmian electron reach the speed of light, at least for one instant?

DOI10.1063/1.3520529zbMATH Open1314.81095arXiv0806.4476OpenAlexW1989681304WikidataQ62036764 ScholiaQ62036764MaRDI QIDQ5255481FDOQ5255481

Authors: Daniel V. Tausk, Roderich Tumulka 

Publication date: 15 June 2015

Published in: Journal of Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In Bohmian mechanics, a version of quantum mechanics that ascribes world lines to electrons, we can meaningfully ask about an electron's instantaneous speed relative to a given inertial frame. Interestingly, according to the relativistic version of Bohmian mechanics using the Dirac equation, a massive particle's speed is less than or equal to the speed of light, but not necessarily less. That is, there are situations in which the particle actually reaches the speed of light---a very non-classical behavior. That leads us to the question of whether such situations can be arranged experimentally. We prove a theorem, Theorem 5, implying that for generic initial wave functions the probability that the particle ever reaches the speed of light, even if at only one point in time, is zero. We conclude that the answer to the question is no. Since a trajectory reaches the speed of light whenever the quantum probability current psi-bar gamma^mu psi is a lightlike 4-vector, our analysis concerns the current vector field of a generic wave function and may thus be of interest also independently of Bohmian mechanics. The fact that the current is never spacelike has been used to argue against the possibility of faster-than-light tunnelling through a barrier, a somewhat similar question. Theorem 5, as well as a more general version provided by Theorem 6, are also interesting in their own right. They concern a certain property of a function psi: R^4 --> C^4 that is crucial to the question of reaching the speed of light, namely being transverse to a certain submanifold of C^4 along a given compact subset of space-time. While it follows from the known transversality theorem of differential topology that this property is generic among smooth functions psi: R^4 --> C^4, Theorem 5 asserts that it is also generic among smooth solutions of the Dirac equation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0806.4476

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Relativistic dynamics for problems in Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics (70H40) Alternative quantum mechanics (including hidden variables, etc.) (81Q65) Covariant wave equations in quantum theory, relativistic quantum mechanics (81R20)

Cites Work

• Essential self-adjointness of powers of generators of hyperbolic equations
• Differential Topology
• A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of "Hidden" Variables. I
• Smoothness of wave functions in thermal equilibrium
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Comments on an Article of Takabayasi conserning the Formulation of Quantum Mechanics with Classical Pictures
• Simple proof for global existence of Bohmian trajectories

Cited In (3)

• Individual particle localization per relativistic de Broglie-Bohm
• Bohmian mechanics for a degenerate time foliation
• Superluminal systematic particle velocity in relativistic stochastic Bohmian mechanics.

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