Event-by-event simulation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiments

TL;DR

This paper presents a local, event-based simulation model for EPR-Bohm experiments with photons that reproduces quantum results without relying on quantum theory, using data analysis procedures similar to real experiments.

Contribution

The paper introduces a local, event-based simulation algorithm that replicates quantum correlations in EPR-Bohm experiments without quantum assumptions.

Findings

Simulation reproduces quantum correlations for both experiment types.

Model strictly satisfies Einstein's local causality.

Probabilistic description matches quantum theoretical expectations.

Abstract

We construct an event-based computer simulation model of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiments with photons. The algorithm is a one-to-one copy of the data gathering and analysis procedures used in real laboratory experiments. We consider two types of experiments, those with a source emitting photons with opposite but otherwise unpredictable polarization and those with a source emitting photons with fixed polarization. In the simulation, the choice of the direction of polarization measurement for each detection event is arbitrary. We use three different procedures to identify pairs of photons and compute the frequency of coincidences by analyzing experimental data and simulation data. The model strictly satisfies Einstein's criteria of local causality, does not rely on any concept of quantum theory and reproduces the results of quantum theory for both types of experiments. We give a rigorous proof that the probabilistic description of the simulation model yields the quantum theoretical expressions for the single- and two-particle expectation values.