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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Experimental test of local hidden-variable theories

Abner Shimony

Published Feb 26, 1993• 115 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The study of hidden-variable interpretations of quantum mechanics was transformed by two papers of Bell. In his 1966 paper in Reviews of Modern Physics [1] he analysed the argument of von Neumann [2] and the more powerful arguments of Jauch and Piron [3] and of Gleason [4], all leading to similar conclusions about the nonassignability of simultaneous values to all the observables of a nontrivial quantum system; and he showed that these arguments do not exclude what may be called “contextualistic” hidden-variable theories, in which the value of an observable O is allowed to depend not only upon the hidden state λ, but also upon the set C of compatible observables measured along with O . In Bell's 1964 paper in Physics [5] (written later than the other, in spite of the earlier publication date) he gave a new kind of argument against a hidden-variable interpretation of quantum mechanics, by showing that no hidden-variables theory which satisfies a certain condition of locality can agree with all the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics. The main purpose of this lecture is to discuss an experiment, designed by Clauser, Horne, Holt and myself [6], which is based on Bell's proof of the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and local hidden-variable theories. Before doing this, however, I wish to make several comments.

DOI
10.1017/cbo9781139172196.007

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The study of hidden-variable interpretations of quantum mechanics was transformed by two papers of Bell. In his 1966 paper in Reviews of Modern Physics [1] he analysed the argument of von Neumann [2] and the more powerful arguments of Jauch and Piron [3] and of Gleason [4], all leading to similar conclusions about the nonassignability of simultaneous values to all the observables of a nontrivial quantum system; and he showed that these arguments do not exclude what may be called “contextualistic” hidden-variable theories, in which the value of an observable O is allowed to depend not only upon the hidden state λ, but also upon the set C of compatible observables measured along with O . In Bell's 1964 paper in Physics [5] (written later than the other, in spite of the earlier publication date) he gave a new kind of argument against a hidden-variable interpretation of quantum mechanics, by showing that no hidden-variables theory which satisfies a certain condition of locality can agree with all the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics. The main purpose of this lecture is to discuss an experiment, designed by Clauser, Horne, Holt and myself [6], which is based on Bell's proof of the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and local hidden-variable theories. Before doing this, however, I wish to make several comments.
The conceptually puzzling features of quantum mechanics as a statistical theory all have their source in the impossibility of relating the probability assignments defined by the quantum state to distributions over determinate values of the physical magnitudes. While some interpretations of quantum mechanics, as well as “hidden variable” modifications of the theory, have proposed several constructions for assigning values to magnitudes (beyond the value assignments defined by the quantum state alone), a variety of theorems exist which impose severe restrictions on such theoretical constructions. This note will deal with Bell's proof (in [2]), that any hidden variable theory satisfying a physically reasonable locality condition is characterized by an inequality which is inconsistent with the quantum statistics. Bell's result has initiated a series of experiments designed to refute the entire class of local hidden variable theories. We show that Bell's inequality actually characterizes a feature of hidden variable theories which is much weaker than locality in the sense considered physically motivated.
Abstract In chapter 12 we give an overview of the historical development of hidden-variable theories aiming to attribute ‘hidden’ definite outcomes to any potential measurement on a quantum system. We start with a discussion of von Neumann’s assumption on hidden-variable models, which was later realized not to hold by Hermann, Kochen, Specker, and Bell, going into detail on Bell’s refutation of von Neumann’s arguments. We then turn to the notion of contextuality, which severely restricts hidden-variable models: we discuss Gleason’s theorem before stating and proving the famous Kochen-Specker theorem, as well as the simpler versions of Peres’ nonet and Mermin’s pentagram. These results show that quantum mechanics is not compatible with the assignment of definite measurement outcomes to all possible measurements, and such assignments can hence only be made once a restricted set of observables, a context, is selected
Bell's inequalities(1964) provides a quantitative criterion to test the local hidden variable theory(LHVT) versus quantum mechanics(QM).For the first time,it leads to the possibility to experimentally distinguish LHVT and QM.So far,there have been tens of experiments ever since the first experiment by Clauser et al(1972).An overwhelming majority of these experiments are in good agreement with the predictions of QM yet violate those of LHVT.Some loopholes in these experiments are discussed in Section I,followed by a respective summary to 12 experiments between 1972 to 1982 and 31 experiments from 1985 and on in Sections II and III.It is finally pointed out that so far there is not a single experiment to close both the locality loophole and the detection loophole at the same time,but the experimental outcomes are irreversible.Accordingly,theoretical physicists must admit that the present physics foundation is broken,i.e.quantum mechanics is contradiction with special relativity.
Abstract By filtering out the philosophic component we can be said that the EPR-paper was directed against the straightforward interpretation of the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle or more generally the Bohr’s complementarity principle. The latter expresses contextuality of quantum measurements: dependence of measurement’s output on the complete experimental arrangement. However, Bell restructured the EPR-argument against complementarity to justify nonlocal theories with hidden variables of the Bohmian mechanics’ type. Then this Bell’s kind of nonlocality - subquantum nonlocality - was lifted to the level of quantum theory - up to the terminology “quantum nonlocality”. The aim of this short note is to explain that Bell’s test is simply a special test of local incompatibility of quantum observables, similar to interference experiments, e.g., the two-slit experiment.
Noncontextual hidden variables theories, assigning simultaneous values to all quantum mechanical observables, are inconsistent by theorems of Gleason and others. These theorems do not exclude contextual hidden variables theories, in which a complete state assigns values to physical quantities only relative to contexts. However, any contextual theory obeying a certain factorisability conditions implies one of Bell's Inequalities, thereby precluding complete agreement with quantum mechanical predictions. The present paper distinguishes two kinds of contextual theories, ‘algebraic’ and ‘environmental’, and investigates when factorisability is reasonable. Some statements by Fine about the philosophical significance of Bell's Inequalities are then assessed.
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.