From Boole to Leggett-Garg: epistemology of Bell-type inequalities

DOI10.1155/2016/4623040MaRDI QIDQ310469zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Karl Hess, Hans De Raedt, Kristel Michielsen

Publication date 8 September 2016

Published in Advances in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.04887

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40) Axioms; other general questions in probability (60A05)

Abstract: In 1862, George Boole derived an inequality for variables, now known as Boolean variables, that in his opinion represents a demarcation line between possible and impossible experience. This inequality forms an important milestone in the epistemology of probability theory and probability measures. In 1985 Leggett and Garg derived a physics related inequality, mathematically identical to Boole's, that according to them represents a demarcation between macroscopic realism and quantum mechanics. Their formalism, constructed for the magnetic flux of SQUIDS, includes general features and applies also to many other quantum experiments. We show that a wide gulf, a wide divide, separates the "sense impressions" and corresponding data, as well as the postulates of macroscopic realism, from the mathematical abstractions that are used to derive the inequality of Leggett-Garg. If the gulf can be bridged, one may indeed derive the said inequality, which is then clearly a demarcation between possible and impossible experience: it cannot be violated and is not violated by quantum theory. We deduce from this fact that a violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality does not mean that the SQUID-flux is not there when nobody looks, as Leggett-Garg suggest, but instead that the probability measures may not be what Leggett-Garg have assumed them to be, when no data can be secured that directly relate to them. We show that similar considerations apply to other well known quantum interpretation-puzzles including that of the two-slit experiment.

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Cited in

(3)

• Quantum cognitive triad: semantic geometry of context representation
• Constraints on macroscopic realism without assuming non-invasive measurability
• From a 1D completed scattering and double slit diffraction to the quantum-classical problem for isolated systems

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