dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaDeterminism beneath Quantum Mechanics
| Authors | Gerard 't Hooft |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0212095 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0212095 |
Abstract
Contrary to common belief, it is not difficult to construct deterministic models where stochastic behavior is correctly described by quantum mechanical amplitudes, in precise accordance with the Copenhagen-Bohr-Bohm doctrine. What is difficult however is to obtain a Hamiltonian that is bounded from below, and whose ground state is a vacuum that exhibits complicated vacuum fluctuations, as in the real world. Beneath Quantum Mechanics, there may be a deterministic theory with (local) information loss. This may lead to a sufficiently complex vacuum state, and to an apparent non-locality in the relation between the deterministic ("ontological") states and the quantum states, of the kind needed to explain away the Bell inequalities. Theories of this kind would not only be appealing from a philosophical point of view, but may also be essential for understanding causality at Planckian distance scales.
{
"annotation_id": "a925dc8f-9fdd-4ad9-8b08-644877201dbe",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:56.340000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:56.340000Z",
"file_hash": "5147377a02ddb7fa237f5062af2ff687c0b678a3ea199411eb2c7ae62114e20b",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Contrary to common belief, it is not difficult to construct deterministic\nmodels where stochastic behavior is correctly described by quantum mechanical\namplitudes, in precise accordance with the Copenhagen-Bohr-Bohm doctrine. What\nis difficult however is to obtain a Hamiltonian that is bounded from below, and\nwhose ground state is a vacuum that exhibits complicated vacuum fluctuations,\nas in the real world.\n Beneath Quantum Mechanics, there may be a deterministic theory with (local)\ninformation loss. This may lead to a sufficiently complex vacuum state, and to\nan apparent non-locality in the relation between the deterministic\n(\"ontological\") states and the quantum states, of the kind needed to explain\naway the Bell inequalities.\n Theories of this kind would not only be appealing from a philosophical point\nof view, but may also be essential for understanding causality at Planckian\ndistance scales.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0212095",
"authors": [
"Gerard \u0027t Hooft"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Determinism beneath Quantum Mechanics",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0212095"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "9df0f3ba-3979-4993-b9bd-963d310fdfb4",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}