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Quantum Counterfactuals and Locality

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Abstract

Stapp’s counterfactual argument for quantum nonlocality based upon a Hardy entangled state is shown to be flawed. While he has correctly analyzed a particular framework using the method of consistent histories, there are alternative frameworks which do not support his argument. The framework dependence of quantum counterfactual arguments, with analogs in classical counterfactuals, vitiates the claim that nonlocal (superluminal) influences exist in the quantum world. Instead it shows that counterfactual arguments are of limited use for analyzing these questions.

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Notes

  1. For other work that comes to the same conclusion, see [6, 10, 11].

  2. References to and a discussion of various objections to the histories approach will be found in [12], which updates earlier material in [13]. A response to a recent criticism by Maudlin [14] will be found in [15], which the American Journal of Physics has refused to publish.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Henry Stapp for providing a preliminary version of [1], for several rounds of correspondence which forced me to clarify my thinking about quantum counterfactuals, and for comments on a draft version of this manuscript. The research described here received support from the National Science Foundation through Grants PHY-0757251 and PHY-1068331.

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  1. Physics Department, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Robert B. Griffiths

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  1. Robert B. Griffiths
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Correspondence to Robert B. Griffiths.

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Griffiths, R.B. Quantum Counterfactuals and Locality. Found Phys 42, 674–684 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-012-9637-9

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