Science and exile: David Bohm, the cold war, and a new interpretation of quantum mechanics

Abstract

DAVID BOHM WAS among the most promising students of his generation when he took his degree in 1943. He got a position at Princeton, did research on plasma theory, and published a well received graduate textbook entitled Quantum theory. But in 1951, his life suffered two important changes. He became a victim of McCarthyʼs anticommunist hysteria and he changed his research focus to a causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. Those two changes were a turning point in his personal and scientifi c life. In the McCarthy period, Bohm could not survive in American academia. He obtained a position in Brazil, but did not enjoy it there. However, having had his passport confi scated by American offi cials, it was as a Brazilian citizen that he left Brazil in January 1955 to take a position at the Technion in Haifa. Two years later he went to England, where he fi nally found a convenient place to pursue his research for the rest of his prolonged exile. His main scientifi c interests remained in the unorthodox subject he began to work on in 1951, but from 1970 on he shifted his approach to what he called "implicit order." 1

Why the Hamilton Operator Alone Is not Enough

“…the artificial asymmetry introduced in the treatment of the two variables of a canonically conjugated pair characterizes this form of theory as artificial metaphysics. ( [8], as quoted by [4]), ". .…”

The origin of the Everettian heresy

“…The role played by Bohm's Marxist ideas in his search for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics is discussed in Forstner (2008). For an analysis of the reception of Bohm's proposal, see Freire (2005). A survey of the ''causal interpretations'' proposed in the early 1950's can be found in Scheibe (1973, p. 2).…”

“…See also Ré dei & Stö ltzner (2001), and, with regard to von Neumann's opinion on Bohm's proposal, Stö ltzner (1999). As for Wigner, his dissatisfaction with Bohr's complementarity predated his involvement in the debates of the 1960's (Freire, 2007;Camilleri, 2008 Freire (2005). 78 In the interview with Everett (op.…”

The Historical Roots of ‘‘Foundations of Quantum Physics’’ as a Field of Research (1950–1970)

“…(7) One should note, however, that at least in a special context, that of the young French Marxist physicists around Jean-Pierre Vigier, the philosophical bias of the dispute was more appealing to them than it was considered a diverting factor. (23) Bohm's proposal fabricated, however, an important spin-off: it motivated John Bell and others to re-examine von Neumman's proof against the possibility of introducing new variables in quantum theory. Thirty years later, Bell wrote: "In 1952 I saw the impossible done".…”