Stochastic outcomes in branching space-time: Analysis of bell's theorem

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (3):445-475 (2000)
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Abstract

The paper extends the framework of outcomes in branching space-time (Kowalski and Placek [1999]) by assigning probabilities to outcomes of events, where these probabilities are interpreted either epistemically or as weighted possibilities. In resulting models I define the notion of common cause of correlated outcomes of a single event, and investigate which setups allow for the introduction of common causes. It turns out that a deterministic common cause can always be introduced, but (surprisingly) only special setups permit the introduction of truly stochastic common causes. I analyse next the Bell-Aspect experiment and derive the Bell-CH inequalities. I observe that we postulate there not a common cause for outcomes of a single event but rather a common common cause that accounts for outcomes of many events, where 'events' mean 'measurements with (different) directions of polarization'. Since the inequalities are violated, I claim that no causal story can be told about the Bell correlations, where causality is subliminal and restricted by screening-off condition. Similarly, given certain intuitive principles, no deterministic story can be told about these correlations

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Citations of this work

Stochastic Einstein Locality Revisited.Jeremy Butterfield - 2007 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 58 (4):805-867.
Towards a Theory of Limited Indeterminism in Branching Space-times.Thomas Müller - 2010 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 39 (4):395-423.
On Time in Quantum Physics.Jeremy Butterfield - 2013 - In Heather Dyke & Adrian Bardon (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Chichester, UK: Wiley. pp. 220–241.

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References found in this work

Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The direction of time.Hans Reichenbach - 1956 - Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Edited by Maria Reichenbach.
The Direction of Time.Hans Reichenbach - 1956 - Philosophy 34 (128):65-66.
Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View.Paul Teller & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1995 - Philosophical Review 104 (3):457.

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