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Correlations and Physical Locality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2022
Extract
Correlations between the behavior of pairs of particles are generated in the following experimental situation. An on-line source emits a stream of two-particle systems, where each system is in one and the same quantum state. After emission, the particles – call then (I) and (II) – move off in opposite directions. Each particle then encounters one of several possible barriers that either it passes or doesn't. A short distance behind each barrier is a detector set to register the presence of the particle, should it get that far. Finally, the detectors are connected by a timed relay and counter that registers a “coincidence count” should the two detectors fire within a set, brief time interval. When the experiment is run with various different barriers, detection rates accumulate for each barrier singly, and coincidence rates (the correlations) for the various pairs of barriers.
- Type
- Part X. Locality and Hidden Variables
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- Copyright
- Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association
Footnotes
Work on this project was supported, in part, by National Science Foundation Grant SES 79-25917. I owe thanks to many people whose responses and criticism have influenced the development of the themes of this essay (and probably to others whose devastating criticism I never received); groups at Indiana University, Stanford and Chicago Circle have been particularly helpful, flbner Shimony has been a powerful and useful critic, Paul Teller a ready, if skeptical, ear, and Dana Fine has been my mainstay as assistant and counselor. Thanks to you all! (You too, M.)
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