Against `Realism'

DOI10.1007/S10701-007-9104-1zbMATH Open1206.81009arXivquant-ph/0607057OpenAlexW3037644312WikidataQ55880168 ScholiaQ55880168MaRDI QIDQ879979FDOQ879979

Travis Norsen

Publication date: 10 May 2007

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

Abstract: We examine the prevalent use of the phrase ``local realism in the context of Bell's Theorem and associated experiments, with a focus on the question: what exactly is the `realism' in `local realism' supposed to mean? Carefully surveying several possible meanings, we argue that all of them are flawed in one way or another as attempts to point out a second premise (in addition to locality) on which the Bell inequalities rest, and (hence) which might be rejected in the face of empirical data violating the inequalities. We thus suggest that the phrase `local realism' should be banned from future discussions of these issues, and urge physicists to revisit the foundational questions behind Bell's Theorem.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0607057

zbMATH Keywords

Bell's theoremquantum mechanicsEPRquantum non-localitylocal realism

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05)

Cites Work

• Proposed Experiment to Test Local Hidden-Variable Theories
• Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics. With an introduction by Alain Aspect
• Relational EPR

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• Generalized observables, Bell's inequalities and mixtures in the ESR model for QM
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• Non-realism: deep thought or a soft option?
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• A note on Bell's theorem logical consistency
• Non-local realistic theories and the scope of the Bell theorem

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