Observable consequences of a hypothetical transient deviation from Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where transient deviations from Quantum Mechanics occur at short measurement times, predicting oscillations in coincidence rates that can be experimentally tested to explore the conflict between QM and Locality/Realism.

Contribution

It introduces a mathematical model of transient deviations from QM and suggests a feasible experiment to detect oscillations in coincidence rates, offering a new test of QM versus LR.

Findings

Model predicts oscillations in coincidence rates with frequency below c/4L.

Experimental setup with 5 km stations can detect these oscillations.

Test provides a novel approach to examine the QM-LR conflict.

Abstract

The conflict between Quantum Mechanics (QM) and the intuitive concepts of Locality and Realism (LR) is manifest in the correlation between measurements performed in remote regions of a spatially spread entangled state. In this paper, it is hypothesized that transient deviations (from the values predicted by QM) occur if the correlation is measured in a time shorter than L/c, where L is the spatial spread of the entangled state and c is the speed of light. In this way, the conflict is solved by changing QM minimally. Under general assumptions, it is obtained a mathematical model of the process that reproduces the QM value after a time longer than L/c has elapsed. One of the predictions of this model is that oscillations of the rate of coincidences should exist, with a main frequency lower than c/4L. An experiment able to reveal these oscillations is shown to be accessible, by placing stations at about 5 Km and reaching a coincidence rate about 3E5 1/s (a value already obtained at the laboratory scale). This means a test of QM vs LR of a completely new type, with several practical and theoretical advantages.