Skip to content

Classical trajectories compatible with quantum mechanics

B. Roy Frieden, A. Plastino

quant-pharXiv:quant-ph/0006012

Abstract

Consider any stationary Schroedinger wave equation (SWE) solution psi (x) for a particle. The corresponding PDF on position QTRemx of the particle is QTRempX(x)=|psi (x)|2. There is a classical trajectory QTRemx(t) for the particle that is consistent with this PDF. The trajectory is unique to within an additive constant corresponding to an initial condition QTRemx(0). However the value of QTRemx(0) cannot be known. As an example, a free particle in its ground state in a box of length QTRemL obeys a classical trajectory QTRemx/L - (1/2pi)sin (2pi x/L)+t0=t. The constant QTRemt0 is an unknowable time displacement. Momentum values, however, cannot be determined by merely differentiating QTRemd/dt the trajectory QTRemx(t) and, instead, follow the usual quantification rules of Heisenberg's. This permits position and momentum to remain complementary variables. Our approach is fundamentally different from that of D. Bohm.

Create a lesson