Hidden Variables or Positive Probabilities?

Details Hidden Variables or Positive Probabilities? Hidden Variables or Positive Probabilities?

2000-04-28

arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0004109v4

Int. J. Theor. Phys. 40, 1525 (2001).

Physics

Quantum Physics

19 pages, 2 ps files This is a second replacement. In this version we include an analysis of yet another version of Bell's the

Scientific paper

Despite claims that Bell's inequalities are based on the Einstein locality condition, or equivalent, all derivations make an identical mathematical assumption: that local hidden-variable theories produce a set of positive-definite probabilities for detecting a particle with a given spin orientation. The standard argument is that because quantum mechanics assumes that particles are emitted in a superposition of states the theory cannot produce such a set of probabilities. We examine a paper by Eberhard, and several similar papers, which claim to show that a generalized Bell inequality, the CHSH inequality, can be derived solely on the basis of the locality condition, without recourse to hidden variables. We point out that these authors nonetheless assumes a set of positive-definite probabilities, which supports the claim that hidden variables or "locality" is not at issue here, positive-definite probabilities are. We demonstrate that quantum mechanics does predict a set of probabilities that violate the CHSH inequality; however these probabilities are not positive-definite. Nevertheless, they are physically meaningful in that they give the usual quantum-mechanical predictions in physical situations. We discuss in what sense our results are related to the Wigner distribution.

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