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Partial Indeterminism is Enough: A Branching Analysis of Bell-Type Inequalities

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Non-locality and Modality

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((NAII,volume 64))

Abstract

The central message of this paper is that indeterminism in measurement events and experimenters’ free choice are enough to explain violations of Bell-type inequalities. To discuss the issue, I develop algebraic branching models that permit a unified discussion of modal, spatiotemporal, and probabilistic features. Some realizations of these models are given by branching structures of Minkowski space-times to which states are assigned. I draw a distinction between correlations produced by events from one history and correlations brought about by events that do not belong to one history. I prove that any finite number of the first kind of correlations can always be explained by a common cause, whereas for some correlations of the second kind, a single local common cause cannot be posited. I argue that the non-existence of common cause local models of the Bell- Aspect experiment derive from indeterminism in measurement events.

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Placek, T. (2002). Partial Indeterminism is Enough: A Branching Analysis of Bell-Type Inequalities. In: Placek, T., Butterfield, J. (eds) Non-locality and Modality. NATO Science Series, vol 64. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0385-8_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0385-8_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0662-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0385-8

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