I point out critical errors in the article “Dr. Bertlmann's Socks in a Quaternionic World of Ambidextral Reality” by J. Christian, published in IEEE ACCESS. Christian's model does not generate the singlet correlations but in fact simply reproduces the Bertlmann effect. John Bell's colleague Reinhold Bertlmann of CERN, in his younger days, always wore one pink and one blue sock, at random. The moment you saw his left foot, you knew what colour sock would be on his right foot. Action at a distance? As John Bell liked to explain, quantum entanglement cannot be explained away in such an easy way. Yet Christian's model assigns the two particles of the EPR-B experiment an equal and opposite spin at the source, the choice being determined by a fair coin toss. However they are measured, these spins are recovered. Christian's computer simulation works by not actually simulating his model at all but by almost directly tracing the negative cosine built into his computer algebra package. Bell's theorem has not been disproved. Debate as to what it means for the foundations of physics as well as for quantum information engineering (quantum communication, computation) is more lively today than ever before. A possible role for Geometric Algebra is still wide open and deserves further investigation, informed by a proper understanding of the mathematical content of Bell's theorem.
I point out critical errors in the article “Dr. Bertlmann's Socks in a Quaternionic World of Ambidextral Reality” by J. Christian, published in IEEE ACCESS. Christian's model does not generate the singlet correlations but in fact simply reproduces the Bertlmann effect. John Bell's colleague Reinhold Bertlmann of CERN, in his younger days, always wore one pink and one blue sock, at random. The moment you saw his left foot, you knew what colour sock would be on his right foot. Action at a distance? As John Bell liked to explain, quantum entanglement cannot be explained away in such an easy way. Yet Christian's model assigns the two particles of the EPR-B experiment an equal and opposite spin at the source, the choice being determined by a fair coin toss. However they are measured, these spins are recovered. Christian's computer simulation works by not actually simulating his model at all but by almost directly tracing the negative cosine built into his computer algebra package. Bell's theorem has not been disproved. Debate as to what it means for the foundations of physics as well as for quantum information engineering (quantum communication, computation) is more lively today than ever before. A possible role for Geometric Algebra is still wide open and deserves further investigation, informed by a proper understanding of the mathematical content of Bell's theorem.
In this paper, I respond to a critique of one of my papers previously published in this journal, entitled ‘Dr. Bertlmann’s socks in a quaternionic world of ambidextral reality.’ The geometrical framework presented in my paper is based on a quaternionic 3-sphere, orS3, taken as a model of the physical space in which we are inescapably confined to perform all our experiments. The framework intrinsically circumvents Bell’s theorem by reproducing the singlet correlations local-realistically, without resorting to backward causation, superdeterminism, or any other conspiracy loophole. In this response, I demonstrate point by point that, contrary to its claims, the critique has not found any mistakes in my paper, either in the analytical model of the singlet correlations or in its event-by-event numerical simulation based on Geometric Algebra.
Unlike our basic theories of space and time, quantum mechanics is not a locally causal theory. Moreover, it is widely believed that any hopes of restoring local causality within any realistic theory have been undermined by Bell's theorem and the experimental investigations it has inspired. In this pedagogical paper, John S. Bell's amusing example of Dr. Bertlmann's socks to illustrate the results of these experiments is reconsidered, first within a toy model of a two-dimensional one-sided world of a non-orientable Möbius strip, and then within a real world of three-dimensional quaternionic sphere, S3, which results from an addition of a single point to IR3at infinity. In the latter quaternionic world, which happens to be the spatial part of a solution of Einstein's field equations of general relativity, the singlet correlations between a pair of entangled fermions can be understood as classically as those between Dr. Bertlmann's colorful socks.
Introduction The philosopher in the street, who has not suffered a course in quantum mechanics, is quite unimpressed by Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen correlations. He can point to many examples of similar correlations in everyday life. The case of Bertlmann's socks is often cited. Dr. Bertlmann likes to wear two socks of different colours. Which colour he will have on a given foot on a given day is quite unpredictable. But when you see (Fig. 1) that the first sock is pink you can be already sure that the second sock will not be pink. Observation of the first, and experience of Bertlmann, gives immediate information about the second. There is no accounting for tastes, but apart from that there is no mystery here. And is not the EPR business just the same? Consider for example the particular EPR gedanken experiment of Bohm (Fig. 2). Two suitable particles, suitably prepared (in the ‘singlet spin state’), are directed from a common source towards two widely separated magnets followed by detecting screens. Each time the experiment is performed each of the two particles is deflected either up or down at the corresponding magnet. Whether either particle separately goes up or down on a given occasion is quite unpredictable. But when one particle goes up the other always goes down and vice-versa. After a little experience it is enough to look at one side to know also about the other.
ABSTRACT: It is argued that perfect quantum correlations cannot be due to additive conservation. Dr. Bertlmann likes to wear two socks of different colours. Which colour he will have on a given foot on a given day is quite unpredictable. But when you see that the first sock is pink you can already be sure that the second sock will not be pink. Observation of the first, and experience of Bertlmann, gives immediate information about the second. Bell (1981) Most interesting features of quantum mechanics have at least something to do with interference, which will not, however, be at issue here at all. Interference is brought out by an appeal to different bases, but here the same (product) basis is adhered to throughout. It is often claimed, and even more often suspected, that conservation accounts for quantum correlations (by which perfect quantum correlations will be meant). The underlying intuition is well expressed by Bertlmann’s socks, or by the fact that the distribution of wine over two glasses can be worked out, provided one knows the total amount in both, by a measurement on one of them. Or consider a conservative classical Hamiltonian where T is kinetic energy and the potential energy V depends only on position. Conservation here means that exchanges of kinetic and potential energy along a trajectory have to satisfy where is the total energy of that motion. Kinetic energy will then be a function only of position, so that at any stage of the motion can be deduced from the potential; they are perfectly correlated. Or take two free classical particles, each one subject only to the influence of the other, with initial momenta and Irrespective of whether they collide their total momentum will remain the momentum of the primed particle can always be derived from the momentum p of the other. These cases are paradigmatic for additive conservation. (),H T V q = +