The Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2004.05.003zbMATH Open1222.81093arXivquant-ph/0308114OpenAlexW1979760438MaRDI QIDQ640240FDOQ640240

D. M. Appleby

Publication date: 17 October 2011

Published in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Meyer, Kent and Clifton (MKC) claim to have nullified the Bell-Kochen-Specker (Bell-KS) theorem. It is true that they invalidate KS's account of the theorem's physical implications. However, they do not invalidate Bell's point, that quantum mechanics is inconsistent with the classical assumption, that a measurement tells us about a property previously possessed by the system. This failure of classical ideas about measurement is, perhaps, the single most important implication of quantum mechanics. In a conventional colouring there are some remaining patches of white. MKC fill in these patches, but only at the price of introducing patches where the colouring becomes pathologically discontinuous. The discontinuities mean that the colours in these patches are empirically unknowable. We prove a general theorem which shows that their extent is at least as great as the patches of white in a conventional approach. The theorem applies, not only to the MKC colourings, but also to any other such attempt to circumvent the Bell-KS theorem (Pitowsky's colourings, for example). We go on to discuss the implications. MKC do not nullify the Bell-KS theorem. They do, however, show that we did not, hitherto, properly understand the theorem. For that reason their results (and Pitowsky's earlier results) are of major importance.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0308114

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zbMATH Keywords

finite precisioncontextual

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Logical foundations of quantum mechanics; quantum logic (quantum-theoretic aspects) (81P10)

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Cited In (22)

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• A simple proof of the Kochen-Specker theorem on the problem of hidden variables
• Impossible colorings and Bell's theorem.
• The Bell theorem as a special case of a theorem of Bass
• Classical representability for partial Boolean structures in quantum mechanics
• Unscrambling the omelette of quantum contextuality. I: Preexistent properties or measurement outcomes?
• Bayesian analog of Gleason’s theorem
• Incomplete Kochen-Specker coloring
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• Constraints on determinism: Bell versus Conway-Kochen
• Conway-Kochen and the finite precision loophole
• A simplified basis for Bell-Kochen-Specker theorems
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• The Bell theorem and the problem of moments
• A Bell-type theorem without hidden variables
• A note on Bell's theorem logical consistency
• Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem: a proof with \(18\) vectors.
• Entropic dynamics: a hybrid-contextual model of quantum mechanics

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