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Oxford University Press eBooks

Work of the Highest Calibre, and a Fine Life

Andrew Whitaker

Published Jun 16, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Bell was a fine physicist. He did important work on accelerators and on nuclear and particle physics, but he will be mostly remembered for his seminal work on the foundations of quantum theory. It can be argued that Bell’s inequalities constitute both the fundamental mystery and the greatest opportunity of quantum theory. In work—taking an established component of physics and bringing in increased understanding and further challenges—he may be compared with Michael Faraday. Bell’s work was based on honesty, and honesty and integrity were also central to his personal life. John Bell’s honesty in his science, and his willingness to work steadily for its progress and to devote his time and efforts to help others to do the same, stand as guiding lights to those coming after him.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198742999.003.0007

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Bell was a fine physicist. He did important work on accelerators and on nuclear and particle physics, but he will be mostly remembered for his seminal work on the foundations of quantum theory. It can be argued that Bell’s inequalities constitute both the fundamental mystery and the greatest opportunity of quantum theory. In work—taking an established component of physics and bringing in increased understanding and further challenges—he may be compared with Michael Faraday. Bell’s work was based on honesty, and honesty and integrity were also central to his personal life. John Bell’s honesty in his science, and his willingness to work steadily for its progress and to devote his time and efforts to help others to do the same, stand as guiding lights to those coming after him.
During the 1960s, Bell produced his seminal work on the foundations of quantum theory, first showing that, contrary to von Neumann’s argument, hidden variable theories were allowed but then that they had to be non-local. Thus, he showed that quantum theory did not respect local causality, and he outlined experiments that could be used to test whether the assumption of local realism was true in quantum theory: Bell’s theorem, or Bell’s inequality, or Bell’s inequalities. His work was followed up by John Clauser, Abner Shimony, Michael Horne, and Richard Holt, who produced the CHSH inequality. Bell had moved to CERN, where he worked on the theory of neutrino experiments, and on nuclear and elementary particle physics, making crucial suggestions concerning the use of gauge theory for each type of physical force and also producing the Adler–Bell–Jackiw anomaly, or the ABJ anomaly.
Introduction This contribution to the book in honour of J. S. Bell will probably differ from the remaining ones, in particular since only a part of it will be devoted to specific technical arguments. In fact I have considered it appropriate to share with the community of physicists interested in the foundational problems of our best theory the repeated interactions I had with him in the last four years of his life, the deep discussions in which we have been involved in particular in connection with the elaboration of collapse theories and their interpretation, and the contributions he gave to the development of this approach at a formal level, as well as championing it on repeated occasions. In brief, I intend to play here the role of one of those lucky persons who became acquainted with him personally, who has exchanged important views with him, who has learned a lot from his deep insight and conceptual lucidity, and, last but not least, whose scientific work has been appreciated by him. Moreover, due to the fact that this book intends to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the derivation of the fundamental inequality which bears his name, I will also devote a small part of the text to recalling his clearcut views about the locality issue, views that I believe have not been grasped correctly by a remarkable part of the scientific community. I will analyze this problem in quite general terms at the end of the paper. Some of Bell's Scientific Achievements Bell received bachelor's degrees in experimental physics and in mathematical physics at Queen'sUniversity of Belfast in the years 1948 and 1949, respectively, and a PhD in physics at the University of Birmingham. We all know very well that already at that time he was absolutely unsatisfied with the conceptual structure of quantum mechanics and with the way in which it was taught. This is significantly expressed by the statement he made during an interview to Jeremy Bernstein: I remember arguing with one of my professors, a Doctor Sloane, about that. I was getting very heated and accusing him, more or less, of dishonesty. He was getting very heated too and said, ‘You're going too far.’
John Stewart Bell (1928-1990) was one of the most important figures in twentieth-century physics, famous for his work on the fundamental aspects of the century's most important theory, quantum mechanics. While the debate over quantum theory between the supremely famous physicists, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, appeared to have become sterile in the 1930s, Bell was able to revive it and to make crucial advances - Bell's Theorem or Bell's Inequalities. He was able to demonstrate a contradiction between quantum theory and essential elements of pre-quantum theory - locality and causality. The book gives a non-mathematical account of Bell's relatively impoverished upbringing in Belfast and his education. It describes his major contributions to quantum theory, but also his important work in the physics of accelerators, and nuclear and elementary particle physics.
Quantum theory is the most successful scientific theory of all time. Many of the great names of physics are associated with quantum theory. Heisenberg and Schrödinger established the mathematical form of the theory while Einstein and Bohr analysed many of its important features. However, it was John Bell who investigated quantum theory in the greatest depth and established what the theory can tell us about the fundamental nature of the physical world. Moreover, by stimulating experimental tests of the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, Bell's work led to the possibility of exploring seemingly philosophical questions, such as the nature of reality, directly through experiments.