Surrealistic Bohmian trajectories do not occur with macroscopic pointers

Abstract

We discuss whether position measurements in quantum mechanics can be contradictory with Bohmian trajectories, leading to what has been called \textquotedblleft surrealistic trajectories\textquotedblright\ in the literature. Previous work has considered that a single Bohmian position can be ascribed to the pointer. Nevertheless, a correct treatment of a macroscopic pointer requires that many particle positions should be included in the dynamics of the system, and that statistical averages should be made over their random initial values. Using numerical as well as analytical calculations, we show that these surrealistic trajectories exist only if the pointer contains a small number of particles; they completely disappear with macroscopic pointers. With microscopic pointers, non-local effects of quantum entanglement can indeed take place and introduce unexpected trajectories, as in Bell experiments; moreover, the initial values of the Bohmian positions associated with the measurement apparatus may influence the trajectory of the test particle, and determine the result of measurement. Nevertheless, a detailed observation of the trajectories of the particles of the pointer can still reveal the nature of the trajectory of the test particle; nothing looks surrealistic if all trajectories are properly interpreted.