Bell nonlocality, signal locality and unpredictability (or what Bohr could have told Einstein at Solvay had he known about Bell experiments)

DOI10.1007/S10701-012-9669-1MaRDI QIDQ1929318zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Eric G. Cavalcanti, H. M. Wiseman

Publication date 7 January 2013

Published in Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2504, http://hdl.handle.net/10072/48542

zbMATH Keywords

uncertaintyBell inequalitiesdeterminismquantum foundationslocalityrandomnessunpredictabilityno-signallingsignal locality

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40) History of quantum theory (81-03)

Abstract: The 1964 theorem of John Bell shows that no model that reproduces the predictions of quantum mechanics can simultaneously satisfy the assumptions of locality and determinism. On the other hand, the assumptions of emph{signal locality} plus emph{predictability} are also sufficient to derive Bell inequalities. This simple theorem, previously noted but published only relatively recently by Masanes, Acin and Gisin, has fundamental implications not entirely appreciated. Firstly, nothing can be concluded about the ontological assumptions of locality or determinism independently of each other -- it is possible to reproduce quantum mechanics with deterministic models that violate locality as well as indeterministic models that satisfy locality. On the other hand, the operational assumption of signal locality is an empirically testable (and well-tested) consequence of relativity. Thus Bell inequality violations imply that we can trust that some events are fundamentally emph{unpredictable}, even if we cannot trust that they are indeterministic. This result grounds the quantum-mechanical prohibition of arbitrarily accurate predictions on the assumption of no superluminal signalling, regardless of any postulates of quantum mechanics. It also sheds a new light on an early stage of the historical debate between Einstein and Bohr.

Recommendations

• Quantum non-locality -- it ain't necessarily so\dots
• Nonlocality without nonlocality
• Bell locality and the nonlocal character of nature
• Bell's inequality violation and localization
• Bell's theorem and the problem of decidability between the views of Einstein and Bohr

Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3057862 (Why is no real title available?)
• A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of "Hidden" Variables. I
• Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?
• Quantum theory at the crossroads. Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay conference. Translation of the proceedings, with a historical introduction and commentary.
• Signal-locality in hidden-variables theories
• Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics. With an introduction by Alain Aspect

Cited in

(12)

• On the meaning of locality: the overlapping assumptions
• Several foundational and information theoretic implications of Bell's theorem
• The essence of nonclassicality: non-vanishing signal deficit
• Quantum reaxiomatisations and information-theoretic interpretations of quantum theory
• Some Personal Reflections on Quantum Nonlocality and the Contributions of John Bell
• Randomness? What randomness?
• Device-independent randomness certification using multiple copies of entangled states
• Temporal correlations and device-independent randomness
• Quantum discord is Bohr's notion of non-mechanical disturbance introduced to counter the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument
• Nonlocal quantum information transfer without superluminal signalling and communication
• Bell's theorem and the issue of determinism and indeterminism
• A testable prediction of the no-signalling condition using a variant of the EPR-Bohm example

This page was built for publication: Bell nonlocality, signal locality and unpredictability (or what Bohr could have told Einstein at Solvay had he known about Bell experiments)

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1929318)