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Realism in Quantum Mechanics and a New Version of the EPR Experiment

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Open Questions in Quantum Physics

Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics ((FTPH,volume 10))

Abstract

Since 1927, physicists with few exceptions (Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen; de Broglie; Landé) accepted the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum formalism, due to Heisenberg, Bohr and Pauli. Since 1934 I opposed this. I contended that the quantum formalism in its statistical interpretation (Einstein, Born) had no special epistemological consequences; that it could, and should, be interpreted realistically (and, of course, locally); and that the so-called indeterminacy relations were just scatter relations; and that the so-called ‘collapse of the wave packet’ was something that occurred in any probabilistic theory and had nothing to do with Planck’s quantum h and even less with an action at a distance. I now submit a new variant of the EPR experiment that can decide between a realistic interpretation and Copenhagen.

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References

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© 1985 Karl R. Popper

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Popper, K. (1985). Realism in Quantum Mechanics and a New Version of the EPR Experiment. In: Tarozzi, G., van der Merwe, A. (eds) Open Questions in Quantum Physics. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5245-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5245-4_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8816-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5245-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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