Quantum Entanglement: Spooky Action at a Distance

Paul F. Kisak

Jozef Strečka

Philip Lilien

No signal. No spooky force. No preassigned vectors. One bivector. Two disclosures. Entanglement is not action at a distance. It is relation disclosed as distance. This paper offers a condensed refutation of the interpretation commonly called “spooky action at a distance.” It does not deny quantum entanglement, Bell correlations, or the empirical validity of quantum mechanics. Rather, it challenges the assumption that entanglement requires one particle to influence another across space. The central proposal is that an entangled pair should not be understood as two originally separate particles requiring later coordination, but as a single undisclosed bivector coherence relation that reduces into paired spin-vector outcomes under measurement. Bell’s theorem rules out preassigned local hidden vector values, but it does not require the conclusion that superluminal action occurs between distant particles. In this framework, the hidden structure is not a classical local variable, but the prior relational spin-plane from which the measured vectors are co-disclosed. Entanglement is therefore not action at a distance, but relation disclosed as distance. The phrase “spooky action at a distance” suggests that two separated particles somehow communicate or influence one another instantly. This paper argues that the phrase is misleading because it begins with the wrong picture. The entangled pair is not first two separate particles. It is first one relational coherence structure. Measurement does not send a message from one particle to another. Measurement discloses paired outcomes from the same underlying relation. In this view, the mystery is not solved by denying quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is preserved. Bell’s theorem is preserved. No faster-than-light signal is introduced. What changes is the ontology. The measured spin vectors are not more fundamental than the relation. They are reduced disclosures of the relation. The core claim is simple: 𝓑AB → (sA, sB) One bivector relation discloses as two correlated vector outcomes. There is no spooky force crossing space. There is one coherence relation disclosed through two measurement sites. Keywords Bivector coherence; entanglement; Bell’s theorem; spooky action at a distance; quantum foundations; spin vectors; relational coherence; measurement; nonlocality; coherence disclosure.

Santhosh Mathew

Richard Healey

Quantum entanglement is popularly believed to give rise to spooky action at a distance of a kind that Einstein decisively rejected. Indeed, important recent experiments on systems assigned entangled states have been claimed to refute Einstein by exhibiting such spooky action. After reviewing two considerations in favor of this view I argue that quantum theory can be used to explain puzzling correlations correctly predicted by assignment of entangled quantum states with no such instantaneous action at a distance. We owe both considerations in favor of the view to arguments of John Bell. I present simplified forms of these arguments as well as a game that provides insight into the situation. The argument I give in response turns on a prescriptive view of quantum states that differs both from Dirac’s (as stated in Chapter 2) and Einstein’s.

Stefan Zaichkowski