On Noncontextual, Non-Kolmogorovian Hidden Variable Theories

Benjamin H. Feintzeig, Samuel C. Fletcher

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

One implication of Bell’s theorem is that there cannot in general be hidden variable models for quantum mechanics that both are noncontextual and retain the structure of a classical probability space. Thus, some hidden variable programs aim to retain noncontextuality at the cost of using a generalization of the Kolmogorov probability axioms. We generalize a theorem of Feintzeig (Br J Philos Sci 66(4): 905–927, 2015) to show that such programs are committed to the existence of a finite null cover for some quantum mechanical experiments, i.e., a finite collection of probability zero events whose disjunction exhausts the space of experimental possibilities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)294-315
Number of pages22
JournalFoundations of Physics
Volume47
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Keywords

  • Hidden variables
  • Non-Kolmogorovian probability
  • Quantum mechanics

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