July 19, 2020 – Infinite Potential: Exploring the Life and Work of David Bohm—Summer Series 2020: Chris Dewdney reviews a selection of the animations that he originated during the period from 1979, when the Two-Slit calculations were first published, up to the more recent field-matter interaction examples. The animations are shown (many in the updated form seen in the documentary Infinite Potential) during his talk and he explains in a non-technical way, how they were produced and exactly what they show. For each animation, the implications for our understanding of quantum mechanics and the nature of reality is drawn out. In particular, he argues that the fundamental nonlocality of quantum mechanics demands that we must transcend our common-sense perception that events are determined solely by processes taking place within ordinary space and time. The true arena in which Schödinger’s quantum mechanics plays out is ‘configuration space’ and these illustrate, using the animations, how Bohm’s trajectories within this space give rise to nonlocal connections in our everyday space and to the wholeness that is seen in complex quantum systems (everything is a complex quantum system). The session ends with discussion on the nature of quantum fields in David Bohm’s quantum field theory and the interaction between quantum fields and quantum matter, hence revealing the nature of the photon. Each of the following animations are shown and discussed:
Einstein’s single slit experiment
The two-slit experiment
Quantum measurement—the Stern Gerlach experiment and the measurement of quantum spin
Nonlocality in David Bohm’s version of the Einstein-Podolski-Rosen experiment
The nature of the field in David Bohm’s quantum field theory
The nature of the photon in the interaction between quantum fields and matter.

Chris Dewdney is a Reader in Theoretical Physics at the University of Portsmouth, UK.

Length: 1 hour and 45 mins