Related papers: Are All Particles Real?
Bohmian mechanics represents the universe as a set of paths with a probability measure defined on it. The way in which a mathematical model of this kind can explain the observed phenomena of the universe is examined in general. It is shown…
Realism -- the idea that the concepts in physical theories refer to 'things' existing in the real world -- is introduced as a tool to analyze the status of the wave-function. Although the physical entities are recognized by the existence of…
We consider the problem of whether there are deterministic theories describing the evolution of an individual physical system in terms of the definite trajectories of its constituent particles and which stay in the same relation to Quantum…
For itinerant fermionic and bosonic systems, we study `particle entanglement', defined as the entanglement between two subsets of particles making up the system. We formulate the general structure of particle entanglement in many-fermion…
Ladyman and Ross (LR) argue that quantum objects are not individuals (or are at most weakly discernible individuals) and use this idea to ground their metaphysical view, ontic structural realism, according to which relational structures are…
Here I explore a novel no-collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics which combines aspects of two familiar and well-developed alternatives, Bohmian mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation. Despite reproducing the empirical…
This introductory text on the basics of quantum mechanics is intended to serve as a kind of travel guide through the quantum world. It starts by asking whether quantum physics is important, or weird, or incomprehensible. It explains why…
Physical laws are a set of rules in the relationship between observations made by the experimenter. All these observations are made through a mechanism that links the external world to the experimenter's awareness, a mechanism which is not…
In these proceedings we illustrate that light, very weakly interacting particles can arise naturally from physics which is fundamentally connected to very high energy scales. Searching for them therefore may give us interesting new insights…
The wave-particle duality has been said to contain the entire mystery of quantum mechanics. Many delayed-choice experiments have been performed to further understand the wave-particle duality. Here, we reveal some flaws in the known…
The compatibility of standard and Bohmian quantum mechanics has recently been challenged in the context of two-particle interference, both from a theoretical and an experimental point of view. We analyze different setups proposed and derive…
The nature of quantum waves, whether they are real physical waves or, on the contrary, mere probability waves, has been a very controversial theme since the beginning of quantum theory. Here we present some possible experiments that may…
Bohmian mechanics is a nonlocal hidden-variable interpretation of quantum theory which predicts that particles follow deterministic trajectories in spacetime. Historically, the study of Bohmian trajectories has mainly been restricted to…
We point out that a new mechanism for radiation should exist if the Bohm theory of quantum mechanics is taken seriously. By traversing a quantum potential, an electron will necessarily be accelerated and radiate. For an illustration, we…
We present a statistical model of non-interacting individual classical particles that may lead to a microscopic implementation of quantum mechanics. The model requires the action of a special type of detector that detects and records…
In quantum theory, particles in three spatial dimensions come in two different types: bosons or fermions, which exhibit sharply contrasting behaviours due to their different exchange statistics. Could more general forms of probabilistic…
It is the matter of fact that quantum mechanics operates with notions that are not determined in the frame of the mechanics' formalism. Among them we can call the notion of "wave-particle" (that, however, does not appear in both classical…
The appearance of tracks, close to classical orbits, left by charged quantum particles propagating inside a detector, such as a cavity periodically illuminated by light pulses, is studied for a family of idealized models. In the…
The Schr\"odinger's wave function can naturally be realized as an 'instantaneous resonant spatial mode' in which quantum particle moves and hence the Born's rule is derived after identifying its origin. This realization facilitates the…
The answer to the question in the title is: in search of new physics beyond the Standard Model, for which there are many motivations, including the likely instability of the electroweak vacuum, dark matter, the origin of matter, the masses…