---
title: "David Bohm"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "David Bohm"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-10-23T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Aharonov-Bohm effect","Bohmian mechanics (pilot-wave theory)","Yakir Aharonov","quantum foundations","McCarthy-era blacklisting"]
seek_code_commit: "d40ee39"
---


American-born theoretical physicist (1917–1992) who proposed the pilot-wave (Bohmian mechanics) reformulation of quantum mechanics — a deterministic hidden-variable alternative to the standard Copenhagen account — and who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, relocating through Brazil and Israel before settling at the University of Bristol. In the vault he is [[entity-yakir-aharonov|Yakir Aharonov]]'s PhD advisor at Bristol and co-discoverer, with Aharonov, of the [[entity-aharonov-bohm-effect|Aharonov-Bohm effect]] (1959); he is also co-author of the 1957 *Physical Review* paper that reanalyzed the Wu-Shaknov experiment as an early test of quantum correlations exceeding the natural classical explanation — a result Aharonov recalls as predating Bell's theorem.

## References
- [[claim-bohm-aharonov-1957-epr-test-predates-bell-1964]]
- [[claim-aharonov-sole-bohr-meeting-was-bohr-lecturing-not-listening]]
- [[claim-bohm-aharonov-1957-ruled-out-furry-mixture-not-all-classical-accounts]]
- [[claim-bohm-aharonov-1957-narrower-than-bell-wu-shaknov-angle-limit]]

- 2026-10-24: independent sourcing (a verbatim primary quote via Milonni 2025, and Yu Shi's 2025 peer-reviewed historical analysis) narrows the 1957 EPR-priority claim: the calculation defeated [[entity-wendell-furry|Wendell Furry]]'s named 1936 classical-mixture hypothesis specifically, not every conceivable classical account, and the Wu-Shaknov apparatus it used could not reach the angles Bell's 1964 theorem needs ([[claim-bohm-aharonov-1957-ruled-out-furry-mixture-not-all-classical-accounts]], [[claim-bohm-aharonov-1957-narrower-than-bell-wu-shaknov-angle-limit]]).