7. W. M. Stuckey, Michael Silberstein, Michael Cifone, Deflating Quantum Mysteries via the Relational Blockworld

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Volume 19: Pages 269-283, 2006

Deflating Quantum Mysteries via the Relational Blockworld

W. M. Stuckey, Michael Silberstein, Michael Cifone

Department of Physics, Elizabethtown College, 1 Alpha Drive, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania 170222298 U.S.A.

We present a spacetime setting for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics that deflates “quantum mysteries” and relates nonrelativistic quantum mechanics to special relativity. This is achieved by assuming spacetime symmetries are fundamental in a blockworld setting, i.e., by interpreting spacetime relations as fundamental to relata. To justify this relational blockworld (RBW) we adopt a result due to G. Kaiser whereby the relativity of simultaneity, stemming from the Poincaré algebra of special relativity, is responsible for the canonical commutation relations of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also, we incorporate a result due to A. Bohr, B. Mottelson, and O. Ulf beck whereby the density matrix for a given experimental situation is obtained from its spacetime symmetry group. We provide an example to illustrate the explanatory nature of RBW and conclude by explaining how RBW deflates “quantum mysteries.”

Keywords: quantum nonlocality, quantum nonseparability, EPR paradox, fortuitousness, Bell's inequality, blockworld

Received: June 24, 2005; Published online: December 15, 2008