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Symmetry

Breaking a Combinatorial Symmetry Resolves the Paradox of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen and Bell

Jürgen Jakumeit, K. Hess

Published Feb 20, 2024• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a Monte Carlo model of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiments that may be implemented on two independent computers and resembles the measurements of the Clauser–Aspect–Zeilinger-type which are performed in two distant stations SA and SB. Our computer model is local deterministic because we show that a theorist in station SB is able to conceive the products of the measurement outcomes of both stations, conditional to any possible equipment configuration in station SA. We show that the Monte Carlo model violates Bell-type inequalities and approaches the results of quantum theory for certain relationships between the number of measurements performed and the number of possible different physical properties of the entangled photon pairs. These relationships are clearly linked to Vorob’ev cyclicities, which always enforce Bell-type inequalities. The realization of this cyclicity depends, however, on combinatorial symmetry considerations that, in turn, depend on the mathematical properties of Einstein’s elements of physical reality. Because these mathematical properties have never been investigated and, therefore, may be free to be chosen in the models for all published experiments, Einstein’s physics does not contradict the experimental findings, instantaneous influences at a distance are put into question and the paradox of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen and Bell is, thus, resolved.

DOI
10.3390/sym16030255

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We present a Monte Carlo model of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiments that may be implemented on two independent computers and resembles the measurements of the Clauser–Aspect–Zeilinger-type which are performed in two distant stations SA and SB. Our computer model is local deterministic because we show that a theorist in station SB is able to conceive the products of the measurement outcomes of both stations, conditional to any possible equipment configuration in station SA. We show that the Monte Carlo model violates Bell-type inequalities and approaches the results of quantum theory for certain relationships between the number of measurements performed and the number of possible different physical properties of the entangled photon pairs. These relationships are clearly linked to Vorob’ev cyclicities, which always enforce Bell-type inequalities. The realization of this cyclicity depends, however, on combinatorial symmetry considerations that, in turn, depend on the mathematical properties of Einstein’s elements of physical reality. Because these mathematical properties have never been investigated and, therefore, may be free to be chosen in the models for all published experiments, Einstein’s physics does not contradict the experimental findings, instantaneous influences at a distance are put into question and the paradox of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen and Bell is, thus, resolved.
We present mathematical models that also may be formulated as computer models for experiments that feature single photon resolution and multiple pairs of polarizers to determine the sorting into ordinary and extraordinary channels. The models are based on Einstein’s hypothesis of elements of physical reality that determine the photon properties and are at first developed for Malus-type experiments. It is then shown that analogous models apply to the well-known Clauser-Aspect-Zeilinger experiments and violate all Bell-type inequalities without violating Einstein’s separation principle. The Bell-type inequalities do not apply to the actual experiments, because they cannot obey the physically necessary symmetry with respect to polarizer-pair rotations. We believe that these findings suggest a change of current interpretations of quantum entanglement away from instantaneous influences at a distance, as promoted in the physics Nobel-lectures 2022, and back toward Einstein’s ideas as well as the more recent ideas of Gerard ‘t Hooft.
An explicit model-example is presented to simulate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) experiments without invoking instantaneous influences at a distance. The model-example, together with the interpretation of past experiments by Kwiat and coworkers, uncovers logical inconsistencies in the application of Bell’s theorem to actual EPR experiments. The inconsistencies originate from topological-combinatorial assumptions that are both necessary and sufficient to derive all Bell-type inequalities including those of Wigner-d’Espagnat and Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt. The model-example circumvents these inconsistencies.
This review is related to the Einstein-Bohr debate and to Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen’s (EPR) and Bohm’s (EPRB) Gedanken-experiments as well as their realization in actual experiments. I examine a significant number of papers, from my minority point of view and conclude that the well-known theorems of Bell and Clauser, Horne, Shimony and Holt (CHSH) deal with mathematical abstractions that have only a tenuous relation to quantum theory and the actual EPRB experiments. It is also shown that, therefore, Bell-CHSH cannot be used to assess the nature of quantum entanglement, nor can physical features of entanglement be used to prove Bell-CHSH. Their proofs are, among other factors, based on a statistical sampling argument that is invalid for general physical entities and processes and only applicable for finite “populations”; not for elements of physical reality that are linked, for example, to a time-like continuum. Bell-CHSH have, furthermore, neglected the subtleties of the theorem of Vorob’ev that includes their theorems as special cases. Vorob’ev found that certain combinatorial-topological cyclicities of classical random variables form a necessary and sufficient condition for the constraints that are now known as Bell-CHSH inequalities. These constraints, however, must not be linked to the observables of quantum theory nor to the actual EPRB experiments for a variety of reasons, including the existence of continuum-related variables and appropriate considerations of symmetry.
Inspired by Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiments with photons, we construct an event-based simulation model in which every essential element in the ideal experiment has a counterpart. The model satisfies Einstein's criteria of local causality and does not rely on concepts of quantum and probability theory. We consider experiments in which the averages correspond to those of a singlet and product state of a system of two S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 particles. The data is analyzed according to the experimental procedure, employing a time window to identify pairs. We study how the time window and the passage time of the photons, which depends on the relative angle between their polarization and the polarizer's direction, influences the correlations, demonstrating that the properties of the optical elements in the observation stations affect the correlations although the stations are separated spatially and temporarily. We show that the model can reproduce results which are considered to be intrinsically quantum mechanical.
Bell's theorem contains the proposition that the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) theory (hypothesis) of the existence of elements of reality together with Einstein locality permits a mathematical description of EPR experiments by functions that are all defined on one common probability space. This proposition leads in turn to restrictions for possible experimental outcomes that Bell expressed in terms of his well known inequalities and that Vorob'ev and others had investigated before Bell. Summarizing several previous publications and adding new material, the above proposition is refuted by Einstein-local counterexamples from classical physics and shown to involve additional assumptions that can not be justified for mutually exclusive (incompatible) measurements and experiments. Moreover, criticism of our work by Mermin who invoked "standard sampling arguments" is shown to be false.
We take the point of view that building a one-way bridge from experimental data to mathematical models instead of the other way around avoids running into controversies resulting from attaching meaning to the symbols used in the latter. In particular, we show that adopting this view offers new perspectives for constructing mathematical models for and interpreting the results of Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiments. We first prove new Bell-type inequalities constraining the values of the four correlations obtained by performing Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiments under four different conditions. The proof is “model-free” in the sense that it does not refer to any mathematical model that one imagines to have produced the data. The constraints only depend on the number of quadruples obtained by reshuffling the data in the four data sets without changing the values of the correlations. These new inequalities reduce to model-free versions of the well-known Bell-type inequalities if the maximum fraction of quadruples is equal to one. Being model-free, a violation of the latter by experimental data implies that not all the data in the four data sets can be reshuffled to form quadruples. Furthermore, being model-free inequalities, a violation of the latter by experimental data only implies that any mathematical model assumed to produce this data does not apply. Starting from the data obtained by performing Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiments, we construct instead of postulate mathematical models that describe the main features of these data. The mathematical framework of plausible reasoning is applied to reproducible and robust data, yielding without using any concept of quantum theory, the expression of the correlation for a system of two spin-1/2 objects in the singlet state. Next, we apply Bell’s theorem to the Stern–Gerlach experiment and demonstrate how the requirement of separability leads to the quantum-theoretical description of the averages and correlations obtained from an Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiment. We analyze the data of an Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiment and debunk the popular statement that Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiments have vindicated quantum theory. We argue that it is not quantum theory but the processing of data from EPRB experiments that should be questioned. We perform Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm experiments on a superconducting quantum information processor to show that the event-by-event generation of discrete data can yield results that are in good agreement with the quantum-theoretical description of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm thought experiment. We demonstrate that a stochastic and a subquantum model can also produce data that are in excellent agreement with the quantum-theoretical description of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen–Bohm thought experiment.