In certain instances, the particle paths predicted by Bohmian mechanics are thought to be at odds with classical intuition. A striking illustration arises in the interference experiments envisaged by Englert, Scully, Süssmann, and Walther, which lead the authors to claim that the Bohmian trajectories cannot be real and so must be “surreal.” Through a combined experimental and numerical study, we here demonstrate that individual trajectories in the hydrodynamic pilot-wave system exhibit the key features of their surreal Bohmian counterparts. These real surreal classical trajectories are rationalized in terms of the system's non-Markovian pilot-wave dynamics. Our study thus makes clear that the designation of Bohmian trajectories as surreal is based on misconceptions concerning the limitations of classical dynamics and a lack of familiarity with pilot-wave hydrodynamics.

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• Drop & bubble phenomena
• Faraday waves
• Quantum correlations, foundations & formalism
• Quantum foundations
• Surface tension effects