Bohmian Mechanics as the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

In order to arrive at Bohmian mechanics from standard nonrelativistic quantum mechanics one need do almost nothing! One need only complete the usual quantum description in what is really the most obvious way: by simply including the positions of the particles of a quantum system as part of the state description of that system, allowing these positions to evolve in the most natural way. The entire quantum formalism, including the uncertainty principle and quantum randomness, emerges from an analysis of this evolution. This can be expressed succinctly – though in fact not succinctly enough – by declaring that the essential innovation of Bohmian mechanics is the insight that particles move!