Abstract
We investigate possible explanations of quantum correlations that satisfy the principle of continuity, which states that everything propagates gradually and continuously through space and time. In particular, following (Bancal et al. in Nat. Phys., 2012) we show that any combination of local common causes and direct causes satisfying this principle, i.e. propagating at any finite speed, leads to signalling. This is true even if the common and direct causes are allowed to propagate at a supraluminal-but-finite speed defined in a Newtonian-like privileged universal reference frame. Consequently, either there is supraluminal communication or the conclusion that Nature is nonlocal (i.e. discontinuous) is unavoidable. [Editor’s note: for a video of the talk given by Prof. Gisin at the Aharonov-80 conference in 2012 at Chapman University, see quantum.chapman.edu/talk-28.]
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Notes
- 1.
Up to some combinations of loopholes that seem highly implausible; however, this being science, this logical possibility should be addressed experimentally.
- 2.
One could also consider the history-fiction case that quantum theory would have been developed before the discovery of relativity. In such a case, quantum nonlocality would have been equally surprising and fascinating and physicists would naturally have been led to search for explanations of these extraordinary correlations in terms of delicate influences yet to be discovered.
- 3.
Though this strongly contrasts with ideas in quantum gravity where space-time is sometimes thought of as an emergent concept, as e.g. in loop quantum gravity.
- 4.
Standard text book descriptions of measurements collapsing the quantum state is an explicit example of a hidden influences explanation; however, in such descriptions the influence propagates at infinite speed. Hence it is more a direct action at a distance than an influence propagating in space and time. Note that because of the infinite speed, all parties are v-connected. Such descriptions also require a universal privileged reference frame.
- 5.
The De-Broglie-Bohm pilot wave model is an explicit example of a v-causal explanation; however, in this model the influence propagates at infinite speed. Hence it is more a direct action at a distance than an influence propagating in space and time. Note that because of the infinite speed, all parties are v-connected, hence Bohm’s model recovers all quantum predictions. This model also requires a universal privileged reference frame.
- 6.
Nor does c appear in the definition of “Bell locality” (12.1). Nevertheless, physicists have always been interested in tests of Bell inequalities between space-like separated events, i.e. between events not-c-connected. This illustrates that v-causal models were always in the back of the mind of those physicists, though with v=c.
- 7.
I.e. satisfy the Clauser-Horn inequality: p(b=c=0|0,0, a,x,d,w)+p(b=c=0|0,1, a,x,d,w)+p(b=c=0|1,0, a,x,d,w)−p(b=c=0|1,1, a,x,d,w)−p(b=0|y=0, a,x,d,w)−p(c=0|z=0, a,x,d,w)≤0 and all its symmetric forms obtained by permuting the inputs and outcomes.
- 8.
Though, if quantum theory is falsified, then one would no longer be looking for an explanations of all quantum correlations.
- 9.
This would be similar to signalling using gravitation—no way to prevent it—but at the speed v.
- 10.
To move the stone one shouldn’t take support on the moon, as this would not move the center of mass of the moon-&-stone, but use a small rocket.
- 11.
I am quite suspicious of explanations relying on intrinsically hidden stuff, hence I dislike this part of the alternative.
- 12.
One recent exception is B. Cocciaro [34]. In this paper the author also recalls that faster than light communication in one universal global privileged reference frame, as consider in this paper, doesn’t lead to the “grand father” time paradox. Indeed, for time paradoxes one should communicate to one’s own past; this requires a go-&-return communication. But if both the go and the return signal are defined in the same reference frame and at the same—possibly supraluminal—speed v, then the “return” signal will necessarily arrive in the absolute future of the start of the “go” signal. It is straightforward to see this in the privileged frame. But then, the start of the “go” and the arrival of the “return” signals are necessarily also time-like in all other reference frames, hence the impossibility to communicate to one’s own past. This is not new and was emphasized, e.g., in [26, 34–36]. Consequently, supraluminal communication might not have said it’s last word.
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Acknowledgements
This article greatly profited from numerous exchanges with my co-authors of [2] and from comment by Rob Thew and many colleagues over the years. This work has been supported by the ERC-AG grant QORE, the CHIST-ERA DIQIP project, and by the Swiss NCCR Quantum Science and Technology—QSIT.
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It is an honor to dedicate this article to Yakir Aharonov, the master of quantum paradoxes.
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Gisin, N. (2014). Quantum Correlations in Newtonian Space and Time:. In: Struppa, D., Tollaksen, J. (eds) Quantum Theory: A Two-Time Success Story. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5217-8_12
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