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On the Empirical Foundations of the Quantum No-Signalling Proofs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

J. B. Kennedy
J. B. Kennedy*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Notre Dame
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Abstract

I analyze a number of the quantum no-signalling proofs (Ghirardi et al. 1980, Bussey 1982, Jordan 1983, Shimony 1985, Redhead 1987, Eberhard and Ross 1989, Sherer and Busch 1993). These purport to show that the EPR correlations cannot be exploited for transmitting signals, i.e., are not causal. First, I show that these proofs can be mathematically unified; they are disguised versions of a single theorem. Second, I argue that these proofs are circular. The essential theorem relies upon the tensor product representation for combined systems, which has no physical basis in the von Neumann axioms. Historically, the construction of this representation scheme by von Neumann and Weyl built no-signalling assumptions into the quantum theory. Signalling between the wings of the EPR-Bell experiments is unlikely but is not ruled out empirically by the class of proofs considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 543 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank the Department of Physics at the University of Notre Dame and the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Cambridge University, where earlier versions of this paper were delivered. Portions of section 1 appeared in my thesis, Kennedy (1992), and I am grateful for the support and encouragement of my advisors. I also owe thanks to the many commentators who contributed to this essay. This work was partially supported by the NSF grant SBR 93-11567.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

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