Most textbooks explain quantum mechanics as a story where each step follows naturally from the one preceding it. However, the development of quantum mechanics was exactly the opposite. It was a zigzag route, full of personal disputes where scientists were forced to abandon well-established classical concepts and to explore new and imaginative pathways. Some of the explored routes were successful in providing new mathematical formalisms capable of predicting experiments at the atomic scale. However, even such successful routes were painful enough, so that relevant scientists like Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger decided not to support them.
In this book, the authors demonstrate the huge practical utility of another of these routes in explaining quantum phenomena in many different research fields. Bohmian mechanics, the formulation of the quantum theory pioneered by Louis de Broglie and David Bohm, offers an alternative mathematical formulation of quantum phenomena in terms of quantum trajectories. Novel computational tools to explore physical scenarios that are currently computationally inaccessible, such as many-particle solutions of the Schrödinger equation, can be developed from it. Bohmian mechanics is also a source of inspiration to look for novel quantum phenomena. Furthermore, it sheds light on the limits and extensions of our present understanding of quantum mechanics toward other paradigms such as relativity or cosmology.
Key Features:
- Provides an introductory chapter with a soft learning-curve in Bohmian mechanics that includes a complete list of exercises and easily programmable algorithms to readily compute physical properties within Bohmians mechanics
- Includes nine additional chapters written by leading experts in different fields, from atomic physics to cosmology
- Discusses practical examples with an extended and updated bibliography on how Bohmian mechanics helps us in our daily research activities
The book is addressed to those interested in bot, quantum engineering, and quantum foundations. It includes students in physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, and nanotechnology, as well as theoretical and experimental researchers seeking new computational or interpretative quantum mechanical tools.
