An alternate approach to quantum chaos through Bohmian mechanics

Abstract

The development of quantum mechanics has proven to be one of the most revolutionary and important descriptions of the universe at its most fundamental scale, but there remains much work to be done for a complete description of all physical phenomena. One notable area of research focuses in the realm of quantum chaos and the lack of a clear correspondence between a classical and quantum description of chaos.

Taking a step back from the usual interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of a wavefunction and its collapse, we study an alternate but correct description of quantum mechanics via the so-called Bohmian picture, with implications for quantum chaos. The resultant description is in terms of ‘Bohmian trajectories’, which are nothing but quantum counterparts of classical trajectories. We will demonstrate that this alternate interpretation can provide a new description of quantum chaos, with a much clearer correspondence to its classical counterpart.