The Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics

Simon Kochen, Ernst P. Specker

John Stewart Bell

John Stewart Bell

Simon Kochen, Ernst P. Specker

Forty years after the advent of quantum mechanics the problem of hidden variables, that is, the possibility of imbedding quantum theory into a classical theory, remains a controversial and obscure subject. Whereas to most physicists the possibility of a classical reinterpretation of quantum mechanics remains remote and perhaps irrelevant to current problems, a minority have kept the issue alive throughout this period. (See Freistadt [5] for a review of the problem and a comprehensive bibliography up to 1957.) As far as results are concerned there are on the one hand purported proofs of the non-existence of hidden variables, most notably von Neumann’s proof, and on the other, various attempts to introduce hidden variables such as de Broglie [4] and Bohm [1] and [2]. One of the difficulties in evaluating these contradictory results is that no exact mathematical criterion is given to enable one to judge the degree of success of these proposals. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

J. S. Bell

The demonstrations of von Neumann and others, that quantum mechanics does not permit a hidden variable interpretation, are reconsidered. It is shown that their essential axioms are unreasonable. It is urged that in further examination of this problem an interesting axiom would be that mutually distant systems are independent of one another.

Koji Nagata, Tadao Nakamura

We study the relation between hidden variables theories and quantum computation.We discuss an inconsistency between a hidden variables theory and controllability of quantum computation.To derive the inconsistency, we use the maximum value of the square of an expected value.We propose a solution of the problem by using new hidden variables theory.Also we discuss an inconsistency between hidden variables theories and the double-slit experiment as the most basic experiment in quantum mechanics.This experiment can be an easy detector to Pauli observable.We cannot accept hidden variables theories to simulate the double-slit experiment in a specific case.Hidden variables theories may not depicture quantum detector.This is a quantum measurement theoretical profound problem.