Dispelling the Quantum Spooks -- a Clue that Einstein Missed?

TL;DR

This paper explores how time-symmetry and quantization of light imply a retrocausal loophole in hidden variable theories, challenging traditional interpretations of Bell's Theorem and suggesting retrocausality as a natural default.

Contribution

It introduces a new argument linking time-symmetry and light quantization to retrocausality, highlighting overlooked implications for hidden variables theories.

Findings

Time-symmetry and quantization imply a retrocausal loophole.

Bell's Theorem does not rule out retrocausality if light quantization is considered.

Retrocausality might have been the default interpretation if this argument was recognized earlier.

Abstract

It is well-known that Bell's Theorem and other No Hidden Variable theorems have a "retrocausal loophole", because they assume that the values of pre-existing hidden variables are independent of future measurement settings. (This is often referred to, misleadingly, as the assumption of "free will".) However, it seems to have gone unnoticed until recently that a violation of this assumption is a straightforward consequence of time-symmetry, given an understanding of the quantization of light that would have seemed natural to Einstein after 1905. The new argument shows precisely why quantization makes a difference, and why time-symmetry alone does not imply retrocausality, in the classical context. It is true that later developments in quantum theory provide a way to avoid retrocausality, without violating time-symmetry; but this escape route relies on the "ontic" conception of the wave function that Einstein rejected. Had this new argument been noticed much sooner, then, it seems likely that retrocausality would have been regarded as the default option for hidden variables theories (a fact that would then have seemed confirmed by Bell's Theorem and the No Hidden Variable theorems). This paper presents these ideas at a level intended to be accessible to general readers.