English

Superdeterminism Without Conspiracy

Quantum Physics 2024-01-09 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Superdeterminism - where the Measurement Independence assumption in Bell's Theorem is violated - is frequently assumed to imply implausibly conspiratorial correlations between properties λ\lambda of particles being measured and measurement settings xx and yy. But it doesn't have to be: a superdeterministic but non-conspiratorial locally causal model is developed where each pair of entangled particles has unique λ\lambda. The model is based on a specific but arbitrarily fine discretisation of complex Hilbert space, where λ\lambda defines the information, over and above the freely chosen nominal settings xx and yy, which fixes the exact measurement settings XX and YY of a run of a Bell experiment. Pearlean interventions, needed to assess whether xx and yy are Bell-type free variables, are shown to be inconsistent with rational-number constraints on the discretised Hilbert states. These constraints limit the post-hoc freedom to vary xx keeping λ\lambda and yy fixed but disappear with any coarse-graining of λ\lambda, XX and YY, rendering so-called drug-trial conspiracies irrelevant. Points in the discretised space can be realised as ensembles of symbolically labelled deterministic trajectories on an `all-at-once' fractal attractor. It is shown how quantum mechanics might be `gloriously explained and derived' as the singular continuum limit of the discretisation of Hilbert space; It is argued that the real message behind Bell's Theorem has less to do with locality, realism or freedom to choose, and more to do with the need to develop more explicitly holistic theories when attempting to synthesise quantum and gravitational physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.11262,
  title  = {Superdeterminism Without Conspiracy},
  author = {Tim Palmer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.11262},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

To appear in Special Issue of the Universe - edited by Jim Al Khalili and Inge Svein Helland

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:01:13.161Z