Beable-Guided Quantum Theories: Generalising Quantum Probability Laws

TL;DR

This paper proposes beable-guided quantum theories (BGQT), which modify quantum probabilities based on beable configurations, offering new ways to interpret quantum phenomena and potentially explain cosmological observations.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of BGQT, generalising quantum theory by incorporating beable-dependent probability weights, and discusses their potential to fit observational data and suggest new quantum-gravity couplings.

Findings

BGQT can model deviations from standard quantum predictions.

They may better fit cosmological data than standard quantum theory.

BGQT open new avenues for quantum gravity research.

Abstract

We introduce the idea of a {\it beable-guided quantum theory}. Beable-guided quantum theories (BGQT) are generalisations of quantum theory, inspired by Bell's concept of beables. They modify the quantum probabilities for some specified set of fundamental events, histories, or other elements of quasiclassical reality by probability laws that depend on the realised configuration of beables. For example, they may define an additional probability weight factor for a beable configuration, independent of the quantum dynamics. BGQT can be fitted to observational data to provide foils against which to compare explanations based on standard quantum theory. For example, a BGQT could, in principle, characterise the effects attributed to dark energy or dark matter, or any other deviation from the predictions of standard quantum dynamics, without introducing extra fields or a cosmological constant. The complexity of the beable-guided theory would then parametrise how far we are from a standard quantum explanation. Less conservatively, we give reasons for taking suitably simple beable-guided quantum theories as serious phenomenological theories in their own right. Among these are that cosmological models defined by BGQT might in fact fit the empirical data better than any standard quantum explanation, and that BGQT suggest potentially interesting non-standard ways of coupling quantum matter to gravity.