dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaA Dirac sea pilot-wave model for quantum field theory
| Authors | S. Colin, W. Struyve |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0701085 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0701085 |
| DOI | 10.1088/1751-8113/40/26/015 |
| Journal | J. Phys. A 40, 7309-7342 (2007) |
Abstract
We present a pilot-wave model for quantum field theory in which the Dirac sea is taken seriously. The model ascribes particle trajectories to all the fermions, including the fermions filling the Dirac sea. The model is deterministic and applies to the regime in which fermion number is superselected. This work is a further elaboration of work by Colin, in which a Dirac sea pilot-wave model is presented for quantum electrodynamics. We extend his work to non-electromagnetic interactions, we discuss a cut-off regularization of the pilot-wave model and study how it reproduces the standard quantum predictions. The Dirac sea pilot-wave model can be seen as a possible continuum generalization of a lattice model by Bell. It can also be seen as a development and generalization of the ideas by Bohm, Hiley and Kaloyerou, who also suggested the use of the Dirac sea for the development of a pilot-wave model for quantum electrodynamics.
{
"annotation_id": "972ea0c2-dba0-4cdf-8185-24435ca3701b",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:33.975000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:33.975000Z",
"file_hash": "6bf340fd9f09ac215735413e3aa08440426732ddc76ce8be3929bfbf7847b344",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We present a pilot-wave model for quantum field theory in which the Dirac sea\nis taken seriously. The model ascribes particle trajectories to all the\nfermions, including the fermions filling the Dirac sea. The model is\ndeterministic and applies to the regime in which fermion number is\nsuperselected. This work is a further elaboration of work by Colin, in which a\nDirac sea pilot-wave model is presented for quantum electrodynamics. We extend\nhis work to non-electromagnetic interactions, we discuss a cut-off\nregularization of the pilot-wave model and study how it reproduces the standard\nquantum predictions. The Dirac sea pilot-wave model can be seen as a possible\ncontinuum generalization of a lattice model by Bell. It can also be seen as a\ndevelopment and generalization of the ideas by Bohm, Hiley and Kaloyerou, who\nalso suggested the use of the Dirac sea for the development of a pilot-wave\nmodel for quantum electrodynamics.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0701085",
"authors": [
"S. Colin",
"W. Struyve"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"hep-th"
],
"doi": "10.1088/1751-8113/40/26/015",
"journal_ref": "J. Phys. A 40, 7309-7342 (2007)",
"title": "A Dirac sea pilot-wave model for quantum field theory",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0701085"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "906defc9-7837-4ca5-88a4-cce6ce67bd7d",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}