Deterministic quantum mechanics: An easy access to the quantum world

The application of modern quantum chemical methods to the simulation of chemical reactions makes it obvious that the Copenhagen picture of quantum mechanics cannot be maintained. In ab-initio molecular dynamics methods, any kind of matter is described by applying the Schrödinger equation to the electronic structure and using classical Newton dynamics for the motion of the atomic nuclei. By lots of calculations on this basis, it has become obvious that this concept is superior to a quantum chemical description of nuclear motion. The nuclei move according to Newton's laws in a perfectly local and deterministic way while the surrounding electronic cloud determines bonding and antibonding interactions between the atoms. The resulting theory is a deterministic formulation of quantum mechanics which is free from paradoxa and is able to explain complex phenomena like photochemistry. An obvious consequence is that molecules like ammonia can have a permanent dipole moment in spectroscopic measurements, while consistent application of traditional quantum mechanics predicts a higher symmetry as is outlined in the paper.