Allori, Valia
(2024)
“Hidden Variables and Bell’s Theorem: Local or Not?”.
[Preprint]
Abstract
Bell’s inequality is an empirical constrain on theories with hidden variables, which EPR argued are
needed to explain observed perfect correlations if keeping locality. One way to deal with the empirical
violation of Bell’s inequality is by openly embracing nonlocality, in a theory like the pilot-wave theory.
Nonetheless, recent proposals have revived the possibility that one can avoid nonlocality by resorting to
superdeterministic theories. These are local hidden variables theories which violate statistical
independence which is one assumption of Bell’s inequality. In this paper I compare and contrast these
two hidden variable strategies: the pilot-wave theory and superdeterminism. I show that even if the
former is nonlocal and the other is not, both are contextual. Nonetheless, in contrast with the pilot-wave
theory, superdeterminist contextuality makes it impossible to test the theory (which therefore becomes
unfalsifiable and unconfirmable) and renders the theory uninformative (measurement results tell us
nothing about the system). It is questionable therefore whether a theory with these features is worth its
costs.
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