Quantum Nonlocality

Abstract

Avery important event in the history of the paradigm shift that quantum physics is bringing about was the extended debate that took place between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein in the 1920s and ‘30s. In these debates, Einstein was always trying to posit to Bohr some conceptual difficulty or some paradox with quantum thinking, and Bohr was always successful in finding a satisfactory answer to Einstein. This went on for a while between the two men, and then the debate became public. The debate reached its absolute height when Einstein, with the help of two young collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, published a paradox in a physics journal, now famous as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or the EPR paradox. In contrast to earlier ones, in this paradox Einstein succeeded in pointing out one of the most fundamental aspects of the quantum view of the world, an aspect that is now called quantum nonlocality. The EPR paradox eventually led to laboratory experiments that verified quantum nonlocality. And all the wonderful things about the new paradigm, the new interpretation of quantum physics included, which you are reading in this book, were inspired by these experiments.