# Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories

(Version of April 28, 1999)  

## Abstract

The interpretations of a particular quantum gedanken experiment provided by Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories are shown to contradict each other, both in the absence and in the presence of a measuring device. The consistent histories result seems closer to standard quantum mechanics, and shows no evidence of the mysterious nonlocal influences present in the Bohmian description.

Bohmian mechanics  provides a realistic interpretation of quantum theory by means of additional “hidden” variables, not part of the standard Hilbert space of wave functions, representing the positions of particles which make up a quantum system. All the particles have well-defined positions at all times, and follow trajectories as a function of time which are determined by the quantum wave function; the unitary time development of the latter is governed by Schrödinger’s equation. These particle trajectories, along with the quantum wave function, provide the basic ontology of the theory.

Measurements do not play a fundamental role in Bohmian mechanics; they are simply particular examples of physical processes. Hence it is quite possible in this approach to model the measurement of a particle’s position, and ask whether the outcome of the measurement reveals the property of the measured particle or gives a spurious result. It was on this basis that the physical reality of Bohmian particle trajectories was challenged by Englert et al. . They asserted that the Bohm trajectory of a particle in a bubble chamber does not necessarily coincide with the track of bubbles it produces. Although they did not carry out a calculation to directly support this particular assertion, they gave detailed calculations for some other situations in which a particular type of detector can be triggered without the trajectory of the particle passing through it. Their conclusion was that Bohmian trajectory is more a metaphysical construction than an aspect of physical reality. See  for a response to this work by proponents of Bohmian mechanics, and  for a reply by Englert et al. Somewhat later, Aharonov and Vaidman  made a simplified model of a bubble chamber track and reached the same conclusion as Englert et al. In addition, Dewdney, Hardy and Squires , themselves quite sympathetic to Bohm’s approach, carried out a detailed calculation on a simple model, in essence that shown in Fig. 1, and confirmed that a quantum particle can excite a detector of this type while passing far away from it, if one accepts the Bohmian trajectory as representing the actual particle position. Their article contains a defense of Bohmian mechanics as an acceptable theory despite this somewhat surprising result.

The consistent histories (sometimes called “decoherent histories”) approach  is also a realistic interpretation of quantum theory, but in this case the elements of reality, or “beables” to use the term coined by John Bell , are entirely quantum mechanical—wave functions or collections of wave functions forming a subspace of the quantum Hilbert space—with no additional “hidden” variables. As in Bohmian mechanics, measurements play no fundamental role in the consistent histories approach, so it is again possible to analyze measurements as physical processes in order to see how the measurement outcomes are related to the properties of the measured system, and how the latter are or are not modified by a measurement.

In consistent histories quantum theory, as in standard quantum mechanics but unlike Bohmian mechanics, particles do not, in general, have well-defined positions. To begin with, typical wave functions are only localized to a certain extent, and this limits the precision with which one can ascribe a position to a particle. In addition, even a sequence of approximate positions, corresponding to different wave functions, as a function of time is only permitted as a suitable quantum description when certain fairly restrictive consistency conditions (from which this approach gets its name) are satisfied. Despite these limitations, consistent histories quantum theory allows one to discuss particle positions with sufficient precision to provide a comparison with Bohmian mechanics for the situation shown in Fig. 1 and discussed in . It yields results which are directly contrary to Bohmian mechanics, but in good agreement with those considered physically reasonable by Englert et al., and Aharonov and Vaidman.

The gedanken apparatus in Fig. 1 differs slightly from that in  in that an initial beam splitter has been replaced by a wedge $`W`$ in order to ensure reflection symmetry in a plane passing midway between the mirrors $`Mc`$ and $`Md`$. A particle initially in a wavepacket $`a0`$ at time $`t_0`$ is split into two wave packets $`c1`$ and $`d1`$ by the wedge (we ignore reflection produced by the wedge), which are later reflected by the two mirrors so that they cross at the position marked $`J`$ and eventually emerge as packets $`e4`$ and $`f4`$ at time $`t_4`$. Note that there is no physical object located at $`J`$; this symbol merely indicates where it is that the two wave packets come together and interfere with each other. The dashed box labeled $`D`$ indicates the position of a detector $`D`$ which is initially absent, but will be added later. The unitary time development induced by Schrödinger’s equation starting at $`t_0`$ and going on to times $`t_1`$, $`t_2`$, $`t_3`$, and $`t_4`$ takes the form

$$|a0(|c1+|d1)/\sqrt{2},$$
(1)   
followed by

$`|c1|c2|c3|f4,`$   
$`|d1|d2|d3|e4`$ (2)   
in an obvious notation. One could include detectors in the output channels $`e`$ and $`f`$, but we omit them as they are not essential for the following discussion.

In Bohmian mechanics the particle’s physical position, which is at every time a precise point in space, as in classical mechanics, can be anywhere inside the corresponding wave packet . As noted by Bell  for a similar gedanken experiment, symmetry ensures that if at $`t_0`$ the particle is initially above the symmetry plane inside the packet $`a0`$, it will always remain above the symmetry plane. Thus it follows wave packet $`c`$ as the latter bounces from the upper mirror, along what we shall call the $`c`$ path, and in the region $`J`$ where the $`c`$ and $`d`$ wave packets intersect, it will again bounce and emerge in the upward-moving wave packet $`e`$, following the $`e`$ path, rather than in the $`f`$ wave packet moving downward along the $`f`$ path. Since there is no physical object located at $`J`$, many physicists will regard this last bounce (in contrast to those which occur at the wedge and the mirror) as counterintuitive, something Bell  was aware of, but which he ascribed to “classical prejudice”. In any case, it is perfectly clear in Bohmian mechanics that if the particle emerges in the $`e`$ channel, it was earlier inside the $`c`$ wave packet, moving along the $`c`$ path above the symmetry plane. A similar discussion applies to a particle which is initially below the symmetry plane in $`a0`$: it follows the $`d`$ path, bounces at $`J`$, and emerges in $`f`$.

A consistent histories analysis can be applied to the situation shown in Fig. 1 by adopting a suitable family of quantum histories, as discussed in . It is convenient to employ a family with two histories

$`Y_{cf}=[a0][c1][c2][c3][f4],`$   
$`Y_{de}=[a0][d1][d2][d3][e4],`$ (3)   
of non-zero weight. Here $`[\psi ]`$ stands for the projection operator $`|\psi \psi |`$ onto the state $`|\psi `$, and the sequence of projectors separated by $``$ symbols should be thought of in a realistic sense as events occurring at the successive times $`t_0,t_1,\mathrm{}t_4`$: the particle is in the corresponding state, described by the corresponding wave packet, at the time in question. The subscripts on $`Y`$ are chosen to indicate the path followed by the particle: in $`Y_{cf}`$ the particle follows the $`c`$ path up to $`J`$ and then moves downward along the $`f`$ path. As in standard quantum mechanics, and in contrast to Bohmian mechanics, a quantum history of this type does not ascribe a precise position to the particle at a particular time; instead, the particle is localized to the extent that the wave packet is localized. While this gives only limited precision, that is quite adequate for the present discussion: we assume that the $`|d1`$ wave packet is (to an adequate approximation) located entirely below the symmetry plane, and therefore in the history $`Y_{de}`$ the particle follows the $`d`$ path below the symmetry plane for times between $`t_1`$ and $`t_3`$, whereas at time $`t_4`$ it is described by $`|e4`$, and is thus in the $`e`$ path.

In addition to the histories in (3), it is necessary to add other histories to make up a complete family . There are many other histories which can be included in the family, among them:

$`Y_{ce}=[a0][c1][c2][c3][e4],`$   
$`Y_{df}=[a0][d1][d2][d3][f4].`$ (4)   
However, all of these additional histories carry zero weight, meaning that they are dynamically impossible and thus do not actually occur (they occur with zero probability). The reason why $`Y_{df}`$, for example, has zero weight is that the particle is in the wave packet $`d3`$ at time $`t_3`$, and integrating the Schrödinger equation starting with $`|d3`$ at $`t_3`$ yields $`|e4`$, which is orthogonal to $`|f4`$, the final state of the particle in the history $`Y_{df}`$. Thus this history has zero weight because the Born rule would ascribe zero probability to a transition from $`|d3`$ to $`|f4`$. The weights used in consistent histories quantum theory can be thought of as generalizations of the Born rule to histories involving more than two times; the rule for assigning weights is explained in .

In order for the family to be regarded as a sample space of mutually exclusive histories (one and only one of which actually occurs) to which probabilities can be assigned in accordance with the laws of quantum dynamics, it is necessary that it be a consistent family satisfying certain mathematically precise consistency conditions, as explained in . Since most of the histories in the family we are considering have zero weight, the consistency conditions are easily verified. Then, using the unitary time transformations in (1) and (2), one can show that the only two histories with non-zero weights, those in (3), both have the same weight (again see  for details). Hence, either the history $`Y_{cf}`$ occurs, with probability 1/2, or $`Y_{de}`$ occurs, with probability 1/2. Thus the probability is 1/2 that the particle emerges in the $`e`$ path, but if it does so it is certain (conditional probability 1) that it was earlier in the $`d`$ path before it reached $`J`$, and not in the $`c`$ path, since the history $`Y_{ce}`$ has zero probability. Similarly, a particle emerging in the $`f`$ path (history $`Y_{cf}`$) was in the $`c`$ path before it reached $`J`$, not in the $`d`$ path.

Consequently, Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories, both of which claim to go beyond standard textbook quantum mechanics in providing a realistic description of what is happening to a quantum system as it develops in time, in the absence of measurements, yield completely opposite and contradictory results for the gedanken experiment in Fig. 1. Bohmian mechanics asserts that the particle will necessarily bounce when it comes to $`J`$, remaining either above or below the symmetry place, thus going from $`c`$ to $`e`$ or from $`d`$ to $`f`$. The consistent histories approach asserts that the particle does not bounce at $`J`$; instead, it follows $`c`$ to $`f`$ or $`d`$ to $`e`$. (Note, incidentally, that the fully quantum-mechanical treatment provided by consistent histories yields precisely the result which Bell ascribed to “classical prejudice”!)

To throw further light on this contradiction, and to see how Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories are related to textbook quantum theory, it is useful to add a measuring device to the gedanken experiment in Fig. 1. While such devices could be employed at the ends of the $`e`$ and $`f`$ channels, this would not provide much insight into the contradiction just mentioned. It is more useful to add a detector at the position marked $`D`$ in Fig. 1, as this can distinguish whether the particle is traveling along path $`c`$ or $`d`$ at an intermediate time. Of course, a measurement in which the particle simply stopped in the detector would be of little help in discussing what happens near $`J`$, so we shall assume a detector which registers the particle’s passage while perturbing its motion as little as possible. In both Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories, the detector must be treated as a quantum mechanical device, which means extending the Hilbert space. In addition, for Bohmian mechanics one must also add additional particle positions (hidden variables).

We take as our Hilbert space the tensor product $`𝒫𝒟`$ of a space $`𝒫`$ for the particle and $`𝒟`$ for the detector. (One could include additional spaces for the wedge and other passive elements in Fig. 1, but doing so would simply make the notation more complicated.) Let us assume that the detector is initially in a state $`|D`$, and that interaction with the particle produces a unitary time development

$$|d1|D|d2|D^{},$$
(5)   
where $`|D^{}`$ denotes a state orthogonal to $`|D`$ in which the detector has detected the particle. In all the other steps of unitary time evolution indicated in (1) and (2), the state of the detector, whether $`|D`$ or $`|D^{}`$ does not change. In particular, the unitary time evolution of the initial state now takes the form

$`\sqrt{2}|a0|D(|c1+|d1)|D`$   
$`(|c2|D+|d2|D^{})\mathrm{}(|f4|D+|e4|D^{}).`$ (6)   
Note that we are making precisely the same assumption about unitary time development as in the study  of this situation using Bohmian mechanics; the only difference is in notation.

Let us now ask how this situation could be given a physical interpretation according to the ideas one finds in standard textbook quantum theory. One approach would be to assume that measurements are made when the particle emerges in $`e`$ or $`f`$, following the dictum that quantum theory only tells one the results of measurements. Based upon (6), one is led to the conclusion that if the particle emerges in $`e`$, then it is correlated with a detector in the state $`D^{}`$, suggesting that the particle triggered the detector at an earlier time, whereas if it emerges in $`f`$ it is correlated with the detector state $`|D`$: the detector was not triggered. This, of course, does not prove that the particle actually passed through the detector, but one can understand how physicists, especially those who work in the laboratory and whose results are dependent upon detectors functioning in a certain way, might well be led to the conclusion, whether or not justified, that a particle emerging in $`e`$ had earlier passed through the detector, and hence crossed from below to above at $`J`$.

But there is another, alternative, approach within the framework of textbook quantum theory. Since a measurement of the particle position was made at the time $`t_1`$ by detector $`D`$, the standard von Neumann prescription would suggest “collapsing the wave function” of the particle when $`D`$ is triggered. That is, the detector either detects or does not detect the particle, and if it does detect the particle, then the particle wave packet at $`t_2`$ should be replaced by $`|d2`$. This wave packet can then be allowed to develop in time according to Schrödinger’s equation, in which case it will, see (2), eventually emerge in the $`e`$ channel: note that it does not bounce at $`J`$, but instead moves from $`d`$ to $`e`$. Granted, there is a certain embarrassment for the standard textbook approach in that, if the detector does not detect the particle, the wave function still collapses (which seems a bit odd), only this time onto the wave packet $`|c2`$, which later emerges in path $`f`$, again without anything peculiar happening at $`J`$. This problem of “interaction-free measurement” has been known for some time within the framework of standard quantum theory . One can make it somewhat less embarrassing by inserting an identical detector in the $`c`$ path, but we shall not pursue the matter further, since the consistent histories approach reaches the same conclusion as standard quantum theory without embarrassment, excuses, or equivocation.

Whichever approach is taken to analyzing this sort of measurement situation from the perspective of textbook quantum theory, one arrives at the conclusion, even if the argument is not fully rigorous, that if a measurement by $`D`$ detects the particle, then it will later cross the symmetry plane near $`J`$ and emerge in the $`e`$ channel, whereas if it is not detected, presumably because it was in path $`c`$ far away from the detector, it will emerge in the $`f`$ channel. This leaves open, of course, the question of what the particle does in the absence of detection, but seems consistent with the idea that if one can say anything at all about what happens with the detector removed, the particle is likely to pass through $`J`$ without bouncing. Considerations of this sort should not simply be dismissed as “classical prejudice”; instead, they represent thoughtful applications of a theory, textbook quantum mechanics, whose principles are not totally consistent, but which has been successfully used to obtain many results in agreement with laboratory experiments.

While textbook quantum reasoning tends to be vague and somewhat intuitive, rather than logically precise, the formulation and rules for consistent histories quantum theory is by now just as precise and rigorous as that of Bohmian mechanics . And the consistent histories analysis of Fig. 1 with the detector in place is in complete accord with the conclusions we have just reached on the basis of standard quantum theory. All one needs to do is to add appropriate detector states, $`[D]`$ or $`[D^{}]`$, to the events at the different times in the histories in (3), and carry out the required analysis. Once again, there are only two histories with non-zero probabilities, $`Y_{cf}`$ with the detector state $`[D]`$ at all times, and $`Y_{de}`$ with $`[D]`$ at $`t_0`$ and $`t_1`$, and the triggered detector state $`[D^{}]`$ at $`t_2,t_3`$ and $`t_4`$. Each of these occurs with probability 1/2. Consequently, the particle emerges in $`e`$ if and only if it was earlier in the $`d`$ path and encountered and triggered the detector between $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$. If the particle is earlier in the $`c`$ path, far from the detector, it does not trigger the detector, and it emerges in $`f`$.

Note that these results with a detector present are completely consistent with the description supplied by consistent histories when the detector is absent. Thus a rigorous and fully quantum-mechanical treatment yields precisely what might have been expected from a naive classical analysis: if a detector is placed in the $`d`$ path, then it detects the particle if the particle passes along that path, and does not detect it if the particle passes far away from it in the $`c`$ path, and at $`J`$ the particle’s behavior is precisely the same as in the absence of a detector. The overall consistency of the accounts with the detector present and absent is not accidental. In the the very first paper on consistent histories  it was pointed out that the statistics associated with a consistent family can always be confirmed, in principle, by the use of suitable idealized quantum measurements. Of course, these measurements have to be of a sort which do not inappropriately disturb the motion of the system being measured; (5) is an example. Less gentle measurements can have other effects—but these, too, can be analyzed using consistent histories methods.

Now let us consider what Bohmian mechanics says about the gedanken experiment when a detector $`D`$ added to the apparatus in Fig. 1. Adding such a detector breaks the symmetry, so the analysis is not as easy as before. Indeed, it is much more complicated than either standard quantum mechanics or the consistent histories approach, because one has to solve not only Schrödinger’s equation, but also also the coupled differential equations for the (classical) trajectories of the particle whose motion is being detected and the particle or particles which constitute the detector. This problem was studied in  for a detector consisting of a single detector particle: let us call it a proton to distinguish it from the electron, the particle whose motion through the system in Fig. 1 is being studied. (The spin degrees of freedom of both particles play no role.)

The analysis in  required numerical integration of the equations of motion for the (classical) positions of the proton and electron, which are coupled to each other through the quantum wave function. The results obtained depend upon the initial position of the proton and that of the electron, as well as on what happens to the detector (proton) at a later time after the electron has moved on towards $`J`$. Under certain circumstances (the reader should consult  for details), it was found that the electron passes through the $`d`$ path and triggers the detector, and then emerges in the $`e`$ channel without bouncing at $`J`$, in agreement with what one would expect from a consistent histories analysis and standard quantum theory. It is also possible for the electron to pass through the $`c`$ path without triggering the detector and emerge in $`f`$, again without bouncing at $`J`$. This, too, agrees with the consistent histories analysis. But this second case is a trifle odd within the context of Bohmian mechanics since had the detector been absent an electron passing through the $`c`$ path would have bounced at $`J`$ and emerged in $`e`$, not $`f`$. Thus Bohmian mechanics tells us that the later behavior of an electron passing through the $`c`$ path can be influenced by the presence or absence of the detector, despite the fact that the electron remains at all times far away from the detector.

Under other conditions the detector can be triggered despite the fact that (according to Bohmian mechanics) the electron passes through the $`c`$ path, and thus is never anywhere near the detector. In this case the particle will bounce at $`J`$ and emerge in $`e`$. (For this to occur it is necessary that the detection process does not result in a macroscopic change before the particle has passed through the region $`J`$ .) An electron emerging in the $`e`$ path with the detector in the triggered state is, of course, a possible outcome at $`t_4`$ according to both standard quantum mechanics and consistent histories, but then it was earlier in the $`d`$ path rather than in the $`c`$ path according to the consistent histories analysis, and this is at least plausible if one employs the less precise approach of standard quantum theory. Once again, we find the predictions of Bohmian quantum mechanics in complete disagreement with consistent histories.

Bohmian mechanics thus leads to a double nonlocal influence: a detector can both affect and be affected by a particle which comes nowhere near it. Not only does this sort of nonlocality contradict consistent histories, it is also in disagreement with the intuitive expectations of physicists such as Englert and his colleagues, and Aharonov and Vaidman. Even proponents of Bohmian mechanics, or physicists very sympathetic to this variety of quantum interpretation, seem to find such nonlocal results a bit counterintuitive, see the remarks in  (commenting on ) and the various comments in . Their defense of Bohmian mechanics is, in essence, that that it yields the same measurement statistics for particle positions as does standard quantum theory, and that standard quantum theory has no sensible way of saying what happens to a particle aside from, or prior to, a measurement. Consequently, there is no way in which standard quantum mechanics can contradict the assertions of Bohmian mechanics about a particle’s trajectory. Thus at the conclusion of  one finds: “The only known way to discuss quantum mechanics in terms of trajectories consistently is to use the Bohm approach…” \[emphasis in the original\].

A basic problem with this defense is that standard quantum mechanics is in practice not so much a set of well-defined and carefully codified principles as it is a collection of phenomenological rules learned by students through a process of working out examples, with solutions marked right or wrong by the professor. In such a discipline a significant part of the practitioner’s skill resides not in the mathematical formulas and statements of basic principles, but rather in a sort of physical intuition which says which rules are to be applied in which circumstances. Even the experts have admitted that standard quantum mechanics contains unresolved inconsistencies, and they have sometimes discussed them in detail . This has been one of the motivations behind the development of Bohmian mechanics, and of consistent histories. Consequently, agreement with standard quantum mechanics is a somewhat vague notion, depending upon which rules one thinks are most important, etc. As the preceding analysis has shown, there are grounds for doubting whether Bohmian mechanics agrees with standard quantum mechanics when a measuring device is added to Fig. 1, and while these doubts can be suppressed by adopting a sufficiently restrictive view of what standard quantum can really assert, this then runs the danger of ignoring the physical intuition of practicing physicists. On the one hand, one must acknowledge that many aspects of standard quantum theory do make its descriptions of physical phenomena a “great smoky dragon”. On the other hand, experiments in quantum optics are unlikely to succeed if the experimenters do not have some understanding of the principles involved in building and operating detectors, and this suggests that the concerns expressed in  have not been adequately dealt with in the response from proponents of Bohmian mechanics that one finds in ; see also .

In any case, Bohmian mechanics is not the only consistent way to discuss quantum trajectories, at least if one is willing to allow the sort of (somewhat) delocalized description inherent in a quantum wave packet, such as $`c1`$ in Fig. 1, which is still precise enough to clearly distinguish path $`c`$ from path $`d`$. These wave packets can, as we have seen, be combined into consistent histories to produce physically sensible results which agree with what most quantum physicists would expect, and show no evidence for particles bouncing in the middle of empty space, nor peculiar nonlocal influences of particles on detectors, or detectors on particles. Thus by using consistent histories one reaches the same results as standard quantum theory without employing the vague arguments and intuitive jumps for which it has been justly criticized. The advent of consistent histories quantum theory sets a higher standard of quantum interpretation against which Bohmian mechanics can be and should be measured.

Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories are both attempts to remove the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in textbook quantum theory by giving a mathematically precise and physically realistic interpretation. Both of them are formulated in clear mathematical terms, and are free of logical inconsistencies, so far as one knows at present. The picture of physical reality which they provide, on the other hand, is very different. It is hoped that the preceding discussion will assist the reader in assessing which approach is more satisfactory.

Acknowledgment. The author is indebted to O. Cohen, C. Dewdney, and S. Goldstein for comments on the manuscript, and to them and to L. Hardy for helpful discussions about Bohmian mechanics. The research described here was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant PHY 96-02084.