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A Loophole in Bell's Theorem? Parameter Dependence in the Hess-Philipp Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Wayne C. Myrvold
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Abstract

The hidden-variables model constructed by Karl Hess and Walter Philipp is claimed by its authors to exploit a “loophole” in Bell's theorem; according to Hess and Philipp, the parameters employed in their model extend beyond those considered by Bell. Furthermore, they claim that their model satisfies Einstein locality and is free of any “suspicion of spooky action at a distance.” Both of these claims are false; the Hess-Philipp model achieves agreement with the quantum-mechanical predictions, not by circumventing Bell's theorem, but via Parameter Dependence.

Type
Quantum Field Theory, Bell's Theorem, and Hidden Variables
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 1357 - 1367
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I am grateful to Jim Brown for encouraging me to look at Hess and Philipp's paper, and to Richard Gill for helpful discussions. Since the completion of the draft of the version of this paper originally submitted for presentation at PSA, two other criticisms of Hess and Philipp have been put forward, that of Gill et al. (2002), and that of Mermin (2002). There is agreement among these criticisms—that Hess and Philipp have not shown—that there is a flaw in the standard proofs of Bell's theorem, and that their model achieves its result via nonlocality. It is hoped that the present paper is a useful supplement to the other criticisms and that, in particular, the simplified model of Section 4 helps to make it clearer what Hess and Philipp have done.

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