On the Common Structure of Bohmian Mechanics and the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory

Valia Allori, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka, Nino Zanghi

Published 2006-03-03, updated 2007-06-04Version 4

Bohmian mechanics and the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber theory provide opposite resolutions of the quantum measurement problem: the former postulates additional variables (the particle positions) besides the wave function, whereas the latter implements spontaneous collapses of the wave function by a nonlinear and stochastic modification of Schr\"odinger's equation. Still, both theories, when understood appropriately, share the following structure: They are ultimately not about wave functions but about ``matter'' moving in space, represented by either particle trajectories, fields on space-time, or a discrete set of space-time points. The role of the wave function then is to govern the motion of the matter.