On probability, indeterminism and quantum paradoxes

Abstract

If the quantum mechanical description of reality is not complete and a hidden variable theory is possible, what arises is the problem to explain where the rates of the outcomes of statistical experiments come from, as already noticed by Landé and Popper. In this paper this problem is investigated, and a new "paradigm" about the nature of dynamical and statistical laws is proposed. This paradigm proposes some concepts which contrast with the usual intuitive view of evolution and of physical law, such as: initial conditions could play no privileged role in determining the evolution of the universe; the statistical distribution of the particles emitted by a source could depend on the future interactions of the particles; indeterministic trajectories can be defined by the least action principle. This paradigm is applied to the analysis of the two-slit experiment and of the EPR paradox, and a coherent picture for these phenomena is proposed; this new picture shows how the well known difficulties in completing the quantum mechanical description of reality could be overcome.