Comment on [open quotes]Nonlocality, counterfactuals, and quantum mechanics[close quotes]
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkely, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
A recent proof [H. P. Stapp, Am. J. Phys. [bold 65], 300 (1997)], formulated in the symbolic language of modal logic, claims to show that contemporary quantum theory, viewed as a set of rules that allow us to calculate statistical predictions among certain kinds of observations, cannot be imbedded in any rational framework that conforms to the principles that (1) the experimenters[close quote] choices of which experiments they will perform can be considered to be free choices, (2) outcomes of measurements are unique, and (3) the free choices just mentioned have no backward-in-time effects of any kind. This claim is similar to Bell[close quote]s theorem, but much stronger, because no reality assumption alien to quantum philosophy is used. The paper being commented on [W. Unruh, Phys. Rev. A [bold 59], 126 (1999)] argues that some such reality assumption has been [open quotes]smuggled[close quotes] in. That argument is examined here and shown, I believe, to be defective. [copyright] [ital 1999] [ital The American Physical Society]
- OSTI ID:
- 6470859
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review A, Vol. 60:3; ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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