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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Correspondence on the ‘Einstein Paradox’

Guido Bacciagaluppi, Elise Crull

Published Nov 14, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter presents a collection of letters between the main protagonists in the EPR debate as analysed in the present volume. Among many other letters, it includes the first ever complete English translation of the correspondence Schrödinger held concerning the EPR paper with, e.g., Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Born and Teller. He kept these letters in a special folder labelled ‘The Einstein Paradox’, only a small portion of which has previously been discussed in the foundations literature. These historical documents, many of which are published here for the first time, form the basis of our analysis in the beginning chapters of this book.

DOI
10.1017/9781139028493.032

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Others on EPR

Guido Bacciagaluppi, Elise Crull

This chapter provides a complete list and brief analyses of published and unpublished responses to EPR in 1935 (virtually all of which are reprinted as later chapters in this book). We invite a renewed consideration of certain contributors not much discussed elsewhere in the literature. These include going beyond Kemble’s short criticism of EPR to his ensuing disagreement with Margenau about the viability of an ensemble interpretation of the wavefunction, and also a response to Kemble’s note on EPR by Podolsky himself. We also examine the correspondence between Margenau and Einstein in the wake of EPR, discussing the role of the collapse postulate, and finally we discuss two papers by Furry, which although not entirely satisfactory qua a response to EPR’s arguments, are nevertheless of great potential interest for the foundations literature more generally.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Nov 14, 2024•0 citations
This chapter presents a collection of letters between the main protagonists in the EPR debate as analysed in the present volume. Among many other letters, it includes the first ever complete English translation of the correspondence Schrödinger held concerning the EPR paper with, e.g., Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Born and Teller. He kept these letters in a special folder labelled ‘The Einstein Paradox’, only a small portion of which has previously been discussed in the foundations literature. These historical documents, many of which are published here for the first time, form the basis of our analysis in the beginning chapters of this book.
The famously controversial 1935 paper by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) took aim at the heart of the flourishing field of quantum mechanics. The paper provoked responses from the leading theoretical physicists of the day, and brought entanglement and nonlocality to the forefront of discussion. This book looks back at the seminal year in which the EPR paper was published and explores the intense debate it unleashed. These conversations in print and in private correspondence offer significant insight into the minds of pioneering quantum physicists including Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger and Albert Einstein himself. Offering the most complete collection of sources to date – many published or translated here for the first time – this text brings a rich new context to this pivotal moment in physics history. Both researchers and students in the history and philosophy of science, and enthusiasts alike, will find this book illuminating.
Schrödinger’s reaction to the EPR paper is less widely known than, say, Bohr’s, and yet our analysis shows that it fits rather nicely with contemporary concerns in foundations of quantum mechanics. Taking the lead both from the EPR paper and from Pauli’s remarks in their correspondence, Schrödinger shows that EPR’s locality considerations lead to the assignment of values to all quantum mechanical observables, but that under apparently mild assumptions this then leads to contradictions of the von Neumann type. This dilemma (as he explicitly calls it) is thus similar to more recent debates between nonlocality on the one hand and no-go results on the other (whether through violation of the Bell inequalities, the Kochen–Specker theorem, or what you will). We shall first look at Schrödinger’s fundamental worries in the years leading up to 1935. The chapter then discusses in detail the direct reaction by Schrödinger to EPR. It will, however, not exhaust our discussion of Schrödinger, who is a recurring character in the book, having poked and prodded his peers on EPR during the whole summer and autumn of 1935.
This paper presents correspondence between Albert Einstein and the mathematical analyst J. L. B. Cooper on the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox of quantum theory published in 1935. Two letters written by Cooper, and the replies from Einstein, all written between October and December 1949, are retyped from the original ones. Furthermore, Einstein's second letter, which he wrote in German, is translated into English. The lack of agreement, arising from very different points of view, is analysed, taking into account the complex underlying mathematical and physical factors that arise naturally in connection with the EPR paradox.
Abstract This paper presents correspondence between Albert Einstein and the mathematical analyst J. L. B. Cooper on the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox of quantum theory published in 1935. Two letters written by Cooper, and the replies from Einstein, all written between October and December 1949, are retyped and added as facsimiles. The lack of agreement, arising from very different points of view, is analysed, taking into account the complex underlying mathematical and physical factors that arise naturally in connection with the EPR paradox.
This chapter provides a complete list and brief analyses of published and unpublished responses to EPR in 1935 (virtually all of which are reprinted as later chapters in this book). We invite a renewed consideration of certain contributors not much discussed elsewhere in the literature. These include going beyond Kemble’s short criticism of EPR to his ensuing disagreement with Margenau about the viability of an ensemble interpretation of the wavefunction, and also a response to Kemble’s note on EPR by Podolsky himself. We also examine the correspondence between Margenau and Einstein in the wake of EPR, discussing the role of the collapse postulate, and finally we discuss two papers by Furry, which although not entirely satisfactory qua a response to EPR’s arguments, are nevertheless of great potential interest for the foundations literature more generally.