Pickering, Phil (2026) Locality in the Heisenberg picture. [Preprint]

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Abstract

A growing body of literature supports Deutsch and Hayden’s (2000) claim that in the Heisenberg picture, quantum entanglement can be characterised locally using objects they call descriptors. I argue that their notion of locality rests, in part, on a qualified version of the principle of separability that I call spatial separability. I show that spatial separability is not sufficient for separability simpliciter, and that the more general version, spatiotemporal separability, reveals that their claim is false. Deutsch and Hayden’s approach also has a novel implication: if descriptors represent actual physical properties, they are non-qualitative properties, which are profoundly different from the qualitative properties we have come to expect from other branches of physics.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Pickering, Phil phil.pickering@outlook.com 0009-0004-8802-2665
Keywords:	locality, separability, nonseparability, quantum mechanics, Heisenberg picture
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Mr Phil Pickering
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2026 20:16
Last Modified:	20 Feb 2026 20:16
Item ID:	28290
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	20 February 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/28290

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• Locality in the Heisenberg picture. (deposited 24 Feb 2025 13:57)
  • Locality in the Heisenberg picture. (deposited 20 Feb 2026 20:16) [Currently Displayed]

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