Pilot-wave approaches to quantum field theory

TL;DR

This paper reviews pilot-wave approaches to quantum field theory, emphasizing how additional variables like particles or fields enable an objective, measurement-independent description of quantum phenomena, addressing foundational issues in standard quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It provides an overview of recent developments in pilot-wave quantum field theory, highlighting how these approaches resolve conceptual difficulties like the measurement problem.

Findings

Pilot-wave models incorporate additional variables such as particles or fields.

These models offer an objective, measurement-independent description of quantum phenomena.

They address and potentially resolve foundational issues like the measurement problem.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of recent work on pilot-wave approaches to quantum field theory. In such approaches, systems are not only described by their wave function, as in standard quantum theory, but also by some additional variables. In the non-relativistic pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm those variables are particle positions. In the context of quantum field theory, there are two natural choices, namely particle positions and fields. The incorporation of those variables makes it possible to provide an objective description of nature in which rather ambiguous notions such as `measurement' and `observer' play no fundamental role. As such, the theory is free of the conceptual difficulties, such as the measurement problem, that plague standard quantum theory.