Paradox and Paradigm: The Einstein—Podolsky—Rosen Correlations

Abstract

Electrons and Photons (1928) was the title of the Fifth Solvay Conference held at Brussels, 24–29 October 1927, under the chairmanship of Lorentz. The Founding Fathers of both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ quantum theory were all present,¹ around the very cradle of ‘quantum mechanics’. It is there that Einstein, with prophetic sagacity, noticed a sign on the face of the newly born babe, which for more than half a century has been a ‘sign of contradiction’ — the subject of private puzzlement and of heated discussions among theoreticians, probably heralding a far-reaching change in paradigm. It consists of a seminal ‘paradox’ lying, as I shall argue, at the very heart of relativistic quantum mechanics. It is precisely as such that Einstein cleverly characterized it, as early as 1927.