Introduction
A profound paradox got baked into quantum mechanics when its modern form consolidated in the 1920s. As a computational framework, quantum theory makes stunningly accurate predictions; as a theory of the physical world, it is incoherent and incomplete. This paper describes an alternative basis for grounding quantum mechanics that replicates its predictive successes without the ontological and epistemological lacunae of the standard “Copenhagen interpretation.” Notably, the theory is testable, since under novel experimental arrangements, its predictions deviate from those of standard quantum mechanics.
I begin with a brief review of the rickety philosophical and logical foundations of standard quantum mechanics, and of earlier attempts to put the quantum edifice on solid bedrock. I then introduce an alternative approach, referred to as “stochastic electron theory” (SET), which unlike the Copenhagen interpretation, satisfies the criteria of philosophical realism, internal consistency, and intuitive simplicity. In a straightforward modification of classical mechanics, SET assumes random fluctuations (Brownian motion) are at play at and below atomic scales. Such stochastic behavior accounts for the probabilistic character of quantum phenomena.
This picture of an electron as a Brownian particle in translational motion brings to mind a Mexican jumping bean zigzagging through space subject to both classical and random forces. The analogy is vivid but imperfect. The jumping bean’s twitches are traced to an internal source (the spasms of larvae), while the electron’s fluctuations are presumably due to an as-yet unknown external source.
A century ago, physicists were seeking a conceptual framework for quantum mechanics. Despite its flawed foundation and cryptic meaning, the Copenhagen interpretation, advocated by the revered and charismatic Niels Bohr, emerged as the dominant paradigm. Had the SET alternative been introduced at that time, perhaps its intuitive adjustment to the classical picture would have provided a different point of departure and subsequent evolutionary path for quantum theory.