Quantum ontological interpretation

Bohmian mechanics refers to the ontological interpretation of quantum theory pioneered by Bohm [4]. The mathematical structure of the theory is not affected by the different interpretation and the same formalism adopted before [7] will be used here. 

D. Bohm and B.J. Hiley, The undivided universe. An ontological interpretation of quantum theory, Routledge, London, 1993. 

The chemistry community, understandably, failed to respond at all, even though Bohmian mechanics probably holds the key to the development of a theory of chemistry, soundly based on quantum theory and relativity. The problem with molecular structure is resolved by the ontological interpretation of quantum-mechanical orbital angular momentum and the key to chemical reactivity and reaction mechanism is provided by the quantum potential function. 

But it is hard to say exactly what these ontological commitments of our fundamental theories are. Our foundational theories always exist with a variety of interpretations. Somehow we must allow for the fact that under different interpretations one and the same theory can be telling us quite different things about the nature of the world. Does classical mechanics tell us that an absolute spacetime exists — or that we must refer dynamically relevant motions to the smeared out cosmological matter Does quantum mechanics tell us that there are measurement processes in which wave packets collapse — or that the universe is, rather, continuously splitting into multiple parallel noninteracting worlds Some of these multiple interpretations arise because the foundational theories seem to make reference to entities and properties that are, on the theory s own terms, in principle immune from observational determination. But other interpretive alternatives are not so tightly connected to the notorious problem of the underdetermination of theory by empirical data. 

In conclusion, the approximations generally used to link molecular chemistry with quantum mechanics are not confined within quantum mechanics on the contrary, they bring in a discontinuity between the concepts of the two domains, and such discontinuity prevents those concepts from being interpreted as referring to the same ontological item. 

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