Experimental Consequences of Local Hidden Variable Theories.
Michael Horne · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 1970
A family of theories called "deterministic local hidden variable theories" (DLHV) is characterized and their consequences are investigated for an experimentally realistic situation. An experiment on the polarization correlation of optical photon pairs emitted in certain atomic cascades is proposed as a test of the family of DLHV theories. The model-independent hidden variable predictions applicable to the realistic experimental arrangement are obtained by a generalization of a previous theorem of Bell. Quantum mechanical predictions for the same experimental situation are calculated for two cases: a J = 0 + J = 1 + J = 0 and a J = 1 + J = 1 + J = 0 electric dipole cascade. For both cascades, it is shown that the quantum mechanical and the DLHV predictions are in sufficient disagreement for an actual experimental test to be possible. Restrictions on detector solid angle and polarizer efficiency, necessary to obtain a decisive experiment, are explicitly given. The Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen argument for the existence of a DLHV theory is reviewed.