Nuclear and particle physics applications of the Bohm picture of quantum mechanics

Abstract

Aproximation methods for calculating individual particle/field motions in spacetime at the quantum level of accuracy (a key feature of the Bohm picture (BP) of quantum mechanics) are studied. This sharply illuminates not only the deep quantum structures underlying any observable quantum statistical laws of motion of particles and fields in spacetime, but also how the continuous merging of the so-called classical and quantal modes of description actually occurs, with no breaks anywhere. Modern textbook presentations of Quantum Theory are used throughout, but only to provide the necessary, already existing, tested formalisms and calculational techniques. New coherent insights, reinterpretations of old solutions and results, and new (in principle testable) quantitative and qualitative predictions can be obtained on the basis of the BP that complete the standard type of postdictions and predictions. Most of the dead wood still cluttering discussions on the meaning of Quantum Theory and the role of the BP is by-passed. We shall try to draw attention to the physics of this unfortunately hardly known novel formulation of Quantum Theory by giving additional illustrative examples inspired from the daily practices of contemporary Nuclear and Particle Physics, subjects that as yet have not been thoroughly reinterpreted within the BP. These fields of research offer excellent oppurtunities for explaining and illustrating the significance of time in quantum transitions, as well as the closely related features of quantum non-locality and quantum wholeness, as hard physical facts. We claim that in addition we can obtain a substantial gain in predictive powers of the underlying, all-encompassing, Quantum Theory.