Why Bohm and Only Bohm?

TL;DR

This paper argues that among the three main realist interpretations of quantum mechanics, only de Broglie-Bohm theory has a consistent ontology and naturally explains the Born rule, unlike the other two.

Contribution

It clarifies the ontological issues of the main realist quantum theories and defends the unique viability of de Broglie-Bohm theory.

Findings

Many worlds cannot account for the Born rule.

Spontaneous collapse theories have ontological issues.

De Broglie-Bohm theory has a consistent ontology and explains the Born rule.

Abstract

It is often claimed that there are three "realist" versions of quantum mechanics: the de Broglie-Bohm theory or Bohmian mechanics, the spontaneous collapse theories and the many worlds interpretation. We will explain why the two latter proposals suffer from serious defects coming from their ontology (or lack thereof) and that the many worlds interpretation is unable to account for the statistics encoded in the Born rule. The de Broglie-Bohm theory, on the other hand, has no problem of ontology and accounts naturally for the Born rule.