Foundations of Physics 43 (8):1008-1038 (2013)
Abstract |
This paper addresses arguments that “separability” is an assumption of Bell’s theorem, and that abandoning this assumption in our interpretation of quantum mechanics (a position sometimes referred to as “holism”) will allow us to restore a satisfying locality principle. Separability here means that all events associated to the union of some set of disjoint regions are combinations of events associated to each region taken separately.In this article, it is shown that: (a) localised events can be consistently defined without implying separability; (b) the definition of Bell’s locality condition does not rely on separability in any way; (c) the proof of Bell’s theorem does not use separability as an assumption. If, inspired by considerations of non-separability, the assumptions of Bell’s theorem are weakened, what remains no longer embodies the locality principle. Teller’s argument for “relational holism” and Howard’s arguments concerning separability are criticised in the light of these results. Howard’s claim that Einstein grounded his arguments on the incompleteness of QM with a separability assumption is also challenged. Instead, Einstein is better interpreted as referring merely to the existence of localised events. Finally, it is argued that Bell rejected the idea that separability is an assumption of his theorem
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Keywords | Non-locality Bell’s theorem Separability Holism |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s10701-013-9730-8 |
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References found in this work BETA
Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy.John Stewart Bell - 2004 - Cambridge University Press.
Incompleteness, Nonlocality, and Realism: A Prolegomenon to the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics.Michael Redhead - 1987 - Oxford University Press.
Gauging What's Real: The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Gauge Theories.Richard Healey - 2007 - Oxford University Press.
View all 46 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Robustness, Diversity of Evidence, and Probabilistic Independence.Jonah N. Schupbach - 2015 - In Mäki, Ruphy, Schurz & Votsis (eds.), Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science: EPSA13 Helsinki. Springer. pp. 305-316.
How to Account for Quantum Non-Locality: Ontic Structural Realism and the Primitive Ontology of Quantum Physics.Michael Esfeld - 2017 - Synthese 194 (7):2329-2344.
Quantum Entanglement: A Hylomorphic Account.Matteo Morganti - 2019 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 11):2773-2793.
View all 14 citations / Add more citations
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