What is the weight of locality and free choice?

Abstract: Is physical reality local, or does what we do here and now have an immediate influence on events elsewhere? Do we have free choice or are our decisions predetermined? In this talk, I will briefly recall how physicists understand these concepts, and how Bell’s theorem undermines our most cherished intuitions about cause-and-effect on the fundamental level. I will also show how to quantitatively compare the assumptions of locality and free choice, with a view to better appreciate their role and weight for causal (or realist) explanations of observed correlations.

Reference: P. Blasiak, E. M. Pothos, J. M. Yearsley, C. Gallus, and E. Borsuk “Violations of locality and free choice are equivalent resources in Bell experiments” PNAS 118 e2020569118 (2021) doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020569118

Popular press release: EurekAlert!: www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/671079

mathematical physicsgeneral physicsquantum physics

Audience: general audience

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QM Foundations & Nature of Time seminar

Series comments: Description: Physics foundations discussion seminar

Current access link in th.if.uj.edu.pl/~dudaj/QMFNoT

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