PhilSci Archive

Answering Mermin’s challenge with conservation per no preferred reference frame

Stuckey, W. M. and Silberstein, Michael and McDevitt, Timothy and Le, T.D. (2020) Answering Mermin’s challenge with conservation per no preferred reference frame. Scientific Reports, 10 (15771).

[img]
Preview
Text
StuckeyMerminChallenge.pdf

Download (670kB) | Preview

Abstract

In 1981, Mermin published a now famous paper titled, "Bringing home the atomic world: Quantum mysteries for anybody" that Feynman called, "One of the most beautiful papers in physics that I know." Therein, he presented the "Mermin device" that illustrates the conundrum of quantum entanglement per the Bell spin states for the "general reader." He then challenged the "physicist reader" to explain the way the device works "in terms meaningful to a general reader struggling with the dilemma raised by the device." Herein, we show how "conservation per no preferred reference frame (NPRF)" answers that challenge. In short, the explicit conservation that obtains for Alice and Bob's Stern-Gerlach spin measurement outcomes in the same reference frame holds only on average in different reference frames, not on a trial-by-trial basis. This conservation is SO(3) invariant in the relevant symmetry plane in real space per the SU(2) invariance of its corresponding Bell spin state in Hilbert space. Since NPRF is also responsible for the postulates of special relativity, and therefore its counterintuitive aspects of time dilation and length contraction, we see that the symmetry group relating non-relativistic quantum mechanics and special relativity via their "mysteries" is the restricted Lorentz group.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Stuckey, W. M.stuckeym@etown.edu
Silberstein, Michaelsilbermd@etown.edu
McDevitt, Timothy
Le, T.D.
Keywords: Bell states, entanglement, relativity principle, time dilation, length contraction, Mermin device
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: William Mark Stuckey
Date Deposited: 29 Sep 2020 13:31
Last Modified: 29 Sep 2020 13:31
Item ID: 18172
Journal or Publication Title: Scientific Reports
Publisher: Springer Nature
Official URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72817-7
DOI or Unique Handle: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72817-7
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: 25 September 2020
Volume: 10
Number: 15771
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18172

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item