How far do EPR-Bell experiments constrain physical collapse theories?
Creators
- 1. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (United States)
- 2. Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada)
Description
A class of theories alternative to standard quantum mechanics, including that of Ghirardi et al ('GRWP'), postulates that when a quantum superposition becomes amplified to the point that the superposed states reach some level of 'macroscopic distinctness', then some non-quantum-mechanical principle comes into play and realizes one or other of the two macroscopic outcomes. Without specializing to any particular theory of this class, I ask how far such 'macrorealistic' theories are generically constrained, if one insists that the physical reduction process should respect Einstein locality, by the results of existing EPR-Bell experiments. I conclude that provided one does not demand that the prescription for reduction respects Lorentz invariance, at least some theories of this type, while in principle inevitably making some predictions that conflict with those of standard quantum mechanics, are not refuted by any existing experiment
Additional details
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1088/1751-8113/40/12/S15;
- PII
- S1751-8113(07)30031-0;
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- Journal of Physics. A, Mathematical and Theoretical (Online)
- Journal Volume
- 40
- Journal Issue
- 12
- Journal Page Range
- p. 3141-3149
- ISSN
- 1751-8121
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United Kingdom
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 38069218
- Subject category
- S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
- Descriptors DEI
- BELL THEOREM; EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS; LOCALITY; LORENTZ INVARIANCE; QUANTUM FIELD THEORY; QUANTUM MECHANICS
- Descriptors DEC
- EQUATIONS; FIELD EQUATIONS; FIELD THEORIES; INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES; MECHANICS