Mer
10
Giu
Seminari e Convegni
Einstein's Arguments against the Completeness of Quantum Mechanics
The QubiTO team is organising a series of seminars dedicated to the foundations of quantum mechanics.
The first seminar will take place on 10 June 2026 at 7:00 p.m. and will feature Professor Marco Giovanelli (University of Turin) presenting a talk entitled Einstein's Arguments against the Completeness of Quantum Mechanics.
Abstract
This seminar will offer a historical overview of Einstein’s arguments against the completeness of quantum mechanics from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. It will be shown that these arguments take the form of reductio arguments: if the quantum-mechanical description is complete, one must accept consequences that appear physically unacceptable. Two versions of this strategy will be discussed, according to the consequence at stake. Reality arguments claim that completeness would force us to deny definite real states even to macroscopic systems before measurement. Separability arguments claim that completeness would make the state of one system depend on a measurement performed on another, spatially separated system. Although the literature has generally emphasized the latter in connection with the EPR argument, we argue that Einstein’s central concern is more clearly expressed by the former. Separability arguments functioned as a detour, allowing Einstein to circumvent the positivist denial that questions about the real state of a system before measurement are meaningful. Once Einstein recognized the limits of this indirect strategy, his later writings returned to the reality argument, which addressed more directly his fundamental concern: microscopic systems, no less than macroscopic ones, must possess definite real states independently of observation, since no sharp boundary can be drawn between atomic objects and macroscopic bodies.
The first seminar will take place on 10 June 2026 at 7:00 p.m. and will feature Professor Marco Giovanelli (University of Turin) presenting a talk entitled Einstein's Arguments against the Completeness of Quantum Mechanics.
Abstract
This seminar will offer a historical overview of Einstein’s arguments against the completeness of quantum mechanics from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. It will be shown that these arguments take the form of reductio arguments: if the quantum-mechanical description is complete, one must accept consequences that appear physically unacceptable. Two versions of this strategy will be discussed, according to the consequence at stake. Reality arguments claim that completeness would force us to deny definite real states even to macroscopic systems before measurement. Separability arguments claim that completeness would make the state of one system depend on a measurement performed on another, spatially separated system. Although the literature has generally emphasized the latter in connection with the EPR argument, we argue that Einstein’s central concern is more clearly expressed by the former. Separability arguments functioned as a detour, allowing Einstein to circumvent the positivist denial that questions about the real state of a system before measurement are meaningful. Once Einstein recognized the limits of this indirect strategy, his later writings returned to the reality argument, which addressed more directly his fundamental concern: microscopic systems, no less than macroscopic ones, must possess definite real states independently of observation, since no sharp boundary can be drawn between atomic objects and macroscopic bodies.