Are There Quantum Effects Coming from Outside Space–Time? Nonlocality, Free Will and “No Many-Worlds”

Chapter

Abstract

Observing the violation of Bell’s inequality tells us something about all possible future theories: they must all predict nonlocal correlations. Hence Nature is nonlocal. After an elementary introduction to nonlocality and a brief review of some recent experiments, I argue that Nature’s nonlocality together with the existence of free will is incompatible with the many-worlds view of quantum physics.

Keywords

Free will Nonlocality Entanglement “Many-worlds” 

References

  1. Acin, A., Gisin, N., Masanes, L.I. (2006). From Bell’s theorem to secure quantum key distribution. Physical Review Letters, 97, 12040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Adler, S. (2007). Collapse models with non-white noises. Journal of Physics A, 40, 755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Aspect, A., Grangier, P., Roger, G. (1982). Experimental realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A new violation of Bell’s inequalities. Physical Review Letters, 49, 91–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Bancal, J.D., Pironio, S., Acin, A., Liang, Y.C., Scarani, V., Gisin, N. (2012). Quantum Nonlocality Based on Finite-Speed Causal Influences Leads to Superluminal Signaling. Nature Physics, in press 2012, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.3795.pdf.
  5. Bell, J.S. (1964). On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. Physics, 1, 195–200; reprinted in: Bell, J.D. (1987). Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics: collected papers on quantum philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, revised edition 2004.Google Scholar
  6. Bell, J.S. (1993). Interview. In P.C.W. Davies, & J.R. Brown (Eds.), The ghost in the atom (pp. 45–57). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  7. Cerf, N.J., Gisin, N., Massar, S., Popescu, S. (2005). Simulating maximal quantum entanglement without communication. Physical Review Letters, 94, 220403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Cocciaro, B., Faetti, S., Fronzoni, L. (2011). A lower bound for the velocity of quantum communications in the preferred frame. Physics Letters A, 375, 379–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Franson, J.D. (1985). Bell’s theorem and delayed determinism. Physical Review D, 31, 2529–2532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Garisto, R. (2002). What is the Speed of Quantum Information? http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0212078v1.pdf
  11. Gilder, L. (2008). The age of entanglement. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
  12. Gisin, N. (2005). Can Relativity be Considered Complete? From Newtonian Nonlocality to Quantum Nonlocality and Beyond. http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0512168v1.pdf
  13. Gisin, N. (2009a). Quantum nonlocality: How does nature do it? Science, 326, 1357–1358.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Gisin, N. (2012). Non-realism: Deep thought or a soft option? Foundations of Physics, 42, 80–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Gisin, N., & Percival, I.C. (1993). Stochastic wave equations versus parallel world components. Physics Letter A, 175, 144–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Gisin, N., Scarani, V., Tittel, W., Zbinden, H. (2000). Optical tests of quantum nonlocality: from EPR-Bell tests towards experiments with moving observers. Annals of Physics, 9, 831–841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Gisin, N., & Zbinden, H. (1999). Bell inequality and the locality loophole: Active versus passive switches. Physics Letters A, 264, 103–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Kent, A. (2009). A proposed test of the local causality of spacetime. In Quantum reality, relativistic causality, and closing the epistemic circle: Essays in honour of Abner Shimony (pp. 369–378). Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Kent, A. (2010). One world versus many: the inadequacy of Everettian accounts of evolution, probability, and scientific confirmation. In S. Saunders, J. Barrett, A. Kent, D. Wallace (Eds.), Many worlds? Everett, quantum theory and reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  20. Massanes, L.I., Acin, A., Gisin, N. (2006). General properties of nonsignaling theories. Physical Review A, 73, 012112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Matsukevich, D.N., et al. (2008). Bell inequality violation with two remote atomic qubits. Physical Review Letters, 100, 150404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Pitowsky, I. (1982). Resolution of the EPR and Bell paradoxes. Physical Review Letters, 48, 1299–1302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Popescu, S., & Rohrlich, D. (1994). Nonlocality as an axiom. Foundations of Physics, 24, 379–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Rowe, M.A., et al. (2001). Experimental violation of a Bell’s inequality with efficient detection. Nature, 409, 791–794.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Ryff, L.C. (2009). Bell’s Conjecture and Faster-Than-Light Communication. http://arxiv.org/pdf/0903.1076v2.pdf
  26. Salart, D., Baas, A., Branciard, C., Gisin, N., Zbinden, H. (2008a). Testing the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’. Nature, 454, 861–864.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Salart, D., Baas, A., van Houwelingen, J.A.W., Gisin, N., Zbinden, H. (2008b). Spacelike separation in a bell test assuming gravitationally induced collapses. Physical Review Letters, 100, 220404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Scarani, S., & Gisin, N. (2005). Superluminal hidden communication as the underlying mechanism for quantum correlations: Constraining models. Brazilian Journal of Physics, 35, 328–332CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Short, A.J., Popescu, S., Gisin, N. (2006). Entanglement swapping for generalized nonlocal correlations. Physical Review A, 73, 012101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Stefanov, A., Zbinden, H., Gisin, N., Suarez, A. (2002). Quantum correlations with spacelike separated beam splitters in motion: Experimental test of multisimultaneity. Physical Review Letters, 88, 120404.Google Scholar
  31. Suarez, A. (2001). Is There a Real Time Ordering Behind the Nonlocal Correlations? http://uk.arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0110124v1
  32. Suarez, A., & Scarani, V. (1997). Does entanglement depend on the timing of the impacts at the beam-splitters? Physics Letters A, 232, 9–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Tittel, W., Brendel, J., Zbinden, H., Gisin, N. (1998). Violation of bell inequalities by photons more than 10 km apart. Physical Review Letters, 81, 3563–3566; ibid (1999) Physics Review A, 59, 4150–4163.Google Scholar
  34. Weihs, G., Jennewein, T., Simon, C., Weinfurter, H., Zeilinger, A. (1998). Violation of Bell’s inequality under strict Einstein locality conditions. Physical Review Letters, 81, 5039–5043.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Zbinden, H., Brendel, J., Gisin, N., Tittel, W. (2001). Experimental test of nonlocal quantum correlation in relativistic configurations. Physical Review A, 63, 022111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Zeh, H.D. (1993). There are no quantum jumps, nor are there particles! Physics Letters A, 172, 189–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Group of Applied PhysicsUniversity of GenevaGeneva 4Switzerland

Personalised recommendations