von Neumann's `No hidden variables' proof: a re-appraisal

DOI10.1007/S10701-010-9480-9MaRDI QIDQ535665zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Jeffrey Bub

Publication date 13 May 2011

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.0499

zbMATH Keywords

foundations of quantum mechanicshidden variablesvon Neumann's proof

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Stochastic mechanics (including stochastic electrodynamics) (81P20) Alternative quantum mechanics (including hidden variables, etc.) (81Q65)

Abstract: Since the analysis by John Bell in 1965, the consensus in the literature is that von Neumann's 'no hidden variables' proof fails to exclude any significant class of hidden variables. Bell raised the question whether it could be shown that any hidden variable theory would have to be nonlocal, and in this sense 'like Bohm's theory.' His seminal result provides a positive answer to the question. I argue that Bell's analysis misconstrues von Neumann's argument. What von Neumann proved was the impossibility of recovering the quantum probabilities from a hidden variable theory of dispersion free (deterministic) states in which the quantum observables are represented as the 'beables' of the theory, to use Bell's term. That is, the quantum probabilities could not reflect the distribution of pre-measurement values of beables, but would have to be derived in some other way, e.g., as in Bohm's theory, where the probabilities are an artefact of a dynamical process that is not in fact a measurement of any beable of the system.

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Cited in

(15)

• An analysis of Stapp's ``A Bell-type theorem without hidden variables
• Von Neumann's theorem on the impossibility of introducing hidden parameters in quantum mechanics
• Contextuality, fine-tuning and teleological explanation
• Unifying hidden-variable problems from quantum mechanics by logics of dependence and independence
• An impossibility theorem for parameter independent hidden variable theories
• Completely real? A critical note on the claims by Colbeck and Renner
• Von Neumann's theorem on hidden variables
• Why a relativistic quantum mechanical world must be indeterministic
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5977113 (Why is no real title available?)
• Von Neumann's impossibility proof: mathematics in the service of rhetorics
• Solomon's argument on hidden variables in quantum theory
• Von Neumann's theorem revisited
• A simple proof of the Kochen-Specker theorem on the problem of hidden variables
• Homer nodded: von Neumann's surprising oversight
• Charting the landscape of interpretation, theory rivalry, and underdetermination in quantum mechanics

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