Applied Bohmian Mechanics ─ From Nanoscale Systems to Cosmology

Bohmian mechanics explains quantum phenomena in terms of point particles guided by waves; the notion is that one object cannot be a wave and a particle simultaneously, but two can by splitting the task. Louis de Broglie posited the idea then dropped it, but David Bohm picked it up during the 1950s, dusted it off, and showed that Bohmian (not Broglian!) mechanics agrees with all quantum experiments done up to now. The theory is little known, but the mathematics are simple for anyone with a basic knowledge of classical and quantum mechanics. In this volume, physicists begin with an overview of the theory, but then focus on practical applications. The topics include hydrogen photo-ionization with strong lasers, the role of trajectories in quantum chemistry and chemical physics, beyond the eikonal approximation in classic optics and quantum physics, and a subquantum accelerating universe. Distributed in North America by CRC Press. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Xavier Oriols received his degree in Physics and Ph.D. in electronic engineering on the study of resonant tunneling diodes with Bohmian trajectories, both from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain, in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He also worked at the Institut d’Electronique, de Microelectronique, et de Nanotechnologie, France, and at the Physics Department of the State University of New York. He is currently an associate professor at the Electronic Engineering Department at the UAB. His present research interests include the study of correlations in many-particle systems and the development of a general, versatile, and user-friendly quantum electron transport simulator, named BITLLES, based on Bohmian mechanics. He is author and coauthor of more than 120 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Jordi Mompart received his Ph.D. in physics from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain, in 1999 on the lasing without inversion topic. He has been visiting researcher at various foreign universities, including the Texas A&M University, Texas; Universitat Munster, Munster, Germany; and the Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy. After a postdoctoral stay at the Leibniz Universitat Hannover, Germany, working on the use of cold atoms for quantum information purposes, he became associate professor at the UAB. His research interests range from laser physics and quantum optics to cold atoms and quantum information. Mompart has authored over 50 papers in international journals.