Convergence to Bohmian Mechanics in a de Broglie-Like Pilot-Wave System

Abstract Bohmian mechanics supplements the quantum wavefunction with deterministic particle trajectories, offering an alternate, dynamical language for quantum theory. However, the Bohmian wavefunction evolves independently of these trajectories, and is thus unaffected by the observable properties of the system. While this property is widely assumed necessary to ensure agreement with quantum mechanics, much work has recently been dedicated to understanding classical pilot-wave systems, which feature a two-way coupling between particle and wave. These systems—including the “walking droplet” system of Couder and Fort (Couder and Fort (2006) Phys. Rev. Lett. 97:154101) and its various abstractions (Dagan and Bush (2020) CR Mecanique 348:555–571; Durey and Bush (2020) Front. Phys. 8:300; (2021) Chaos 31:033136; Darrow and Bush (2024) Symmetry 16:149)—allow us to investigate the limits of classical systems and offer a touchstone between quantum and classical dynamics. In this work, we present a general result that bridges Bohmian mechanics with this classical pilot-wave theory. Namely, Darrow and Bush ((2024) Symmetry 16:149) recently introduced a Lagrangian pilot-wave framework to study quantum-like behaviours in classical systems; with a particular choice of particle-wave coupling, they recover key dynamics hypothesised in de Broglie’s early double-solution theory (de Broglie (1970) Foundations Phys. 1:5–15). We here show that, with a different choice of coupling, their de Broglie-like system reduces exactly to single-particle Bohmian mechanics in the non-relativistic limit. Our result clarifies that, while multi-particle entanglement is impossible to replicate in general with local, classical theories, no such restriction exists for single-particle quantum mechanics. Moreover, connecting with the previous work of Darrow and Bush, our work demonstrates that de Broglie’s and Bohm’s theories can be connected naturally within a single Lagrangian framework. Finally, we present an application of the present work in developing a single-particle analogue for position measurement in a de Broglie-like setting.