Local, deterministic hidden variable theories based on a loophole in Bell's theorem

Abstract

This paper furthers the long historical examination of and debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics (QM) by presenting two local hidden variable (LHV) rules in the context of the EPRB experiment which violate Bell's inequality, but which are nevertheless local and deterministic under reasonable definitions of the terms, and coincide approximately with the conventional QM prediction. The theories are based on the general idea of probabilistic detection of particles depending on an interaction of hidden variables within the measuring device and particle, and relate mathematically to Fourier analysis. The crucial discrepancy of variations in the hidden variable distribution based on relative polarizer orientations is isolated which invalidates assumptions in Bell-type theorems. The first theory can be analyzed completely symbolically whereas the second was analyzed using numerical methods. The properties of the second in particular are shown to be approximately consistent with the reported results and uncertainties in all three Aspect experiments. Variation in the total photon pairs detected over orientations is shown to be a basic characteristic of these theories. Some comments on the relevance of active vs. passive locality are made. Two sections consider these ideas relative to energy conservation and the measurement problem (collapse of the wavefunction). One section proposes new experiments.