Gao, Shan (2019) Closing the superdeterminism loophole in Bell's theorem. [Preprint]

Preview

Text Bell free will 2019.pdf Download (164kB) | Preview

Abstract

It is well known that there is a freedom-of-choice loophole or superdeterminism loophole in Bell's theorem. Since no experiment can completely rule out the possibility of superdeterminism, it seems that a local hidden variable theory consistent with relativity can never be excluded. In this paper, we present a new analysis of local hidden variable theories. The key is to notice that a local hidden variable theory assumes the universality of the Schroedinger equation, and it permits that a measurement can be in principle undone in the sense that the wave function of the composite system after the measurement can be restored to the initial state. We propose a variant of the EPR-Bohm experiment with reset operactions that can undo measurements. We find that according to quantum mechanics, when Alice's measurement is undone after she obtained her result, the correlation between the results of Alice's and Bob's measurements depends on the time order of these measurements, which may be spacelike separated. Since a local hidden variable theory consistent with relativity requires that relativistically non-invariant relations such as the time order of spacelike separated events have no physical significance, this result means that a local hidden variable theory cannot explain the correlation and reproduce all predictions of quantum mechanics even when assuming superdeterminism. This closes the major superdeterminism loophole in Bell's theorem.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Gao, Shan sgao7319@uni.sydney.edu.au
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Theory/Observation
Depositing User:	Prof. Shan Gao
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2019 04:35
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2019 04:35
Item ID:	16203
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Theory/Observation
Date:	9 July 2019
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16203

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item