We extend Einstein's hole argument into the quantum domain, and argue that quantum observables for quasiclassical superpositional states of gravitational fields require additional information to be well-defined, namely, relative positions of the gravitational fields involved in superpositional states. As a consequence, for the definition of these quantum observables we need a common background. The observable is a transition probability in a simple double-slit experiment with partial gravitational measurement of position. It may be easily computed in non-relativistic Schroedinger theory with Newtonian potential.
A frequently given version of the argument of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen against the completeness of the quantum mechanical description is criticized as a misrepresentation that lacks the cogency of the original EPR argument.
The EPR (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) argument and the Schrodinger cat paradox are revisited in relation with modern quantum optics and atomic physics and with the concept of decoherence. It is shown that the questions raised fifty years ago are still at the heart of our understanding of quantum physics today.
I consider a thought experiment measuring the decoherence for quasiclassical superpositions of gravitational field. A version of the hole argument allows to prove that a covariant (background-free) theory is completely unable to define the outcome of this experiment and is therefore not viable. Instead, the results of experiments of this type allow to reconstruct a common background shared by all superposed gravitational fields.
The support of Copenhagen quantum mechanics in the discussion concerning EPR experiments has been based fundamentally on two mistakes. First, quantum mechanics as well as hidden-variable theory give the same predictions; the statement of Belinfante from 1973 about the significant difference must be denoted as mistake. Secondly, the experimental violation of Bell's inequalities has been erroneously interpreted as excluding the hidden-variable alternative, while they have been based on assumption corresponding to classical physics. The EPR experiments cannot bring, therefore, any decision in the…
Does the quantum state represent reality or our knowledge of reality? In making this distinction precise, we are led to a novel classification of hidden variable models of quantum theory. Indeed, representatives of each class can be found among existing constructions for two-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Our approach also provides a fruitful new perspective on arguments for the nonlocality and incompleteness of quantum theory. Specifically, we show that for models wherein the quantum state has the status of something real, the failure of locality can be established through an argument considerab…
The EPR paradox (1935) is reexamined in the light of Shannon's information theory (1948). The EPR argument did not take into account that the observers' information was localized, like any other physical object.
In 1935 Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) published an important paper in which they claimed that the whole formalism of quantum mechanics together with what they called "Reality Criterion" imply that quantum mechanics cannot be complete. That is, there must exist some elements of reality that are not described by quantum mechanics. There must be, they concluded, a more complete description of physical reality behind quantum mechanics. There must be a state, a hidden variable, characterizing the state of affairs in the world in more details than the quantum mechanical state, something that a…
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox is one of the milestones in quantum foundations, arising from the lack of local realistic description of quantum mechanics. The EPR paradox has stimulated an important concept of "quantum nonlocality", which manifests itself by three different types: quantum entanglement, quantum steering, and Bell nonlocality. Although Bell nonlocality is more often used to show the "quantum nonlocality", the original EPR paradox is essentially a steering paradox. In this work, we formulate the original EPR steering paradox into a contradiction equality,thus making it…
Correlations between distant particles are central to many puzzles and paradoxes of quantum mechanics and, at the same time, underpin various applications like quantum cryptography and metrology. Originally in 1935, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) used these correlations to argue against the completeness of quantum mechanics. To formalise their argument, Schrödinger subsequently introduced the notion of quantum steering. Still, the question which quantum states can be used for the EPR argument and which not remained open. Here we show that quantum steering can be viewed as an inclusion prob…
We discuss the properties of two Bose-Einstein condensates in different spin states, represented quantum mechanically by a double Fock state. Individual measurements of the spins of the particles are performed in transverse directions (perpendicular to the spin quantization axis), giving access to the relative phase of the two macroscopically occupied states. Before the first spin measurement, the phase is completely undetermined; after a few measurements, a more and more precise knowledge of its value emerges under the effect of the quantum measurement process. This naturally leads to the usu…
The EPR argument points to the existence of additional variables that are necessary to complete standard quantum theory. It was dismissed by Bohr because it attributes physical reality to isolated microscopic systems, independently of the macroscopic measurement apparatus. Here, we transpose the EPR argument to macroscopic systems, assuming that they are in spatially extended Fock spin states and subject to spin measurements in remote regions of space. Bohr's refutation of the EPR argument does not seem to apply in this case, since the difference of scale between the microscopic measured syste…
This note shows how one can be led from considerations of quantum steering to Bell's theorem. The point is that steering remote systems by choosing between two measurements can be described in a local theory if we take quantum states to be associated many-to-one with the underlying "real states" of the world. Once one adds a third measurement this is no longer possible. Historically this is not how Bell's theorem arose - there are slight and subtle differences in the arguments - but it could have been.
It is shown that the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen conclusion concerning the `incompleteness' of Quantum Mechanics is invalidated by two logical errors in their argument. If it were possible to perform the proposed gedanken experiment it would, in fact, show that Quantum Mechanics is `complete' for the observables discussed. Because, however, of the non square-integrable nature of the wave function, the proposed experiment gives vanishing probabilities for measurements performed in finite intervals of configuration or momentum space. Hence no conclusion as to the `completeness', or otherwise, of Qua…
On the seminal paper written by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen [1], a critique to the completeness of quantum mechanics was posed. Part of the critique consisted in the following argument: if quantum mechanics is complete, then, two physical quantities, with non-commuting operators, can have simultaneous reality. In this paper I aim to provide a pedagogical approach to the notions used in the EPR's argument.
It has been shown by us recently that Einstein was right in his controversy with Bohr or that the so called hidden-variable theory should be preferred to the Copenhagen quantum mechanics. In the following paper the corresponding arguments will be shortly repeated. The main attention will be then devoted to explaining main differences between these two quantum alternatives, differing in the access to the problem of chance, causality and locality of microscopic objects. The actual meaning of the mentioned hidden variables will be discussed, too, the essence of which remained practically unclear …
A critical reconsideration of the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) paper shows that the EPR argument can be developed without using the concept of `element of physical reality', thus eliminating any philosophical element in the logical chains of the paper. Deprived of its philosophical ornament, the EPR argument plainly reduces to require what quantum mechanics can not do: to assign definite values to two incompatible physical quantities. Hidden variables theories built up according to Bell - type theorems are formulated on the basis of the assumption that the locality condition implies the stati…
For any state in four-dimensional system, the quantum violation of an inequality based on the Peres-Mermin proof for testing noncontextual realist models has experimentally been corroborated. In the Peres-Mermin proof, an array of nine holistic observables for two two-qubit system was used. We, in this letter, present a new symmetric set of observables for the same system which also provides a contradiction of quantum mechanics with noncontextual realist models in a state-independent way. The whole argument can also be cast in the form of a new inequality that can be empirically tested.
Bose-Einstein condensates subject to short pulses (`kicks') from standing waves of light represent a nonlinear analogue of the well-known chaos paradigm, the quantum kicked rotor. Previous studies of the onset of dynamical instability (ie exponential proliferation of non-condensate particles) suggested that the transition to instability might be associated with a transition to chaos. Here we conclude instead that instability is due to resonant driving of Bogoliubov modes. We investigate the excitation of Bogoliubov modes for both the quantum kicked rotor (QKR) and a variant, the double kicked …
In the Solvay conference (1927) Einstein argued against the quantum nonlocal decision at detection on the basis of a simple single-particle experiment, but thereafter he withdrew towards the more complicated 2-particle EPR argument. It has been claimed that Einstein was seeking for an "epistemic interpretation". In the light of a recent experiment I argue that Einstein missed an important point: One cannot have conservation of energy without nonlocality at detection. This experiment refutes also straightforwardly "epistemic" and "ontic" alternatives to quantum theory, and shows that Einstein's…
It is well-known that Bell's Theorem and other No Hidden Variable theorems have a "retrocausal loophole", because they assume that the values of pre-existing hidden variables are independent of future measurement settings. (This is often referred to, misleadingly, as the assumption of "free will".) However, it seems to have gone unnoticed until recently that a violation of this assumption is a straightforward consequence of time-symmetry, given an understanding of the quantization of light that would have seemed natural to Einstein after 1905. The new argument shows precisely why quantization …
In their well-known argument against the completeness of quantum theory, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) made use of a state that strictly correlates the positions and momenta of two particles. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the EPR state as a normalized, positive linear functional of the Weyl algebra for two degrees of freedom. We then show that the EPR state maximally violates Bell's inequalities.
A scalar field in the ground state, when partially hidden from observation by a spherical boundary, acquires entanglement entropy $S$ proportional to the area of the surface. This area law is well established in flat space, where it follows almost directly from dimensional arguments. We study its validity in an Einstein universe, whose curvature provides an additional physical parameter on which the entropy could, in principle, depend. The surprisingly simple result is that the entanglement entropy still scales linearly with the area. This is supported by other observations to the effect that …
In this Einstein Year of Physics it seems appropriate to look at an important aspect of Einstein's work that is often down-played: his contribution to the debate on the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Contrary to popular opinion, Bohr had no defence against Einstein's 1935 attack (the EPR paper) on the claimed completeness of orthodox quantum mechanics. I suggest that Einstein's argument, as stated most clearly in 1946, could justly be called Einstein's reality-locality-completeness theorem, since it proves that one of these three must be false. Einstein's instinct was that completeness o…
