On Superdeterministic Rejections of Settings Independence

TL;DR

This paper presents a local superdeterministic model that reproduces quantum predictions by violating settings independence, challenging common assumptions and highlighting the complexity and limitations of such models.

Contribution

It introduces a fully local superdeterministic model that reproduces quantum mechanics without requiring complex initial states or losing explanatory power.

Findings

Model reproduces all quantum predictions

Violates settings independence without complex initial states

Highlights limitations and complexity of superdeterministic models

Abstract

Relying on some auxiliary assumptions, usually considered mild, Bell's theorem proves that no local theory can reproduce all the predictions of quantum mechanics. In this work, we introduce a fully local, superdeterministic model that, by explicitly violating settings independence--one of these auxiliary assumptions, requiring statistical independence between measurement settings and systems to be measured--is able to reproduce all the predictions of quantum mechanics. Moreover, we show that, contrary to widespread expectations, our model can break settings independence without an initial state that is too complex to handle, without visibly losing all explanatory power and without outright nullifying all of experimental science. Still, we argue that our model is unnecessarily complicated and does not offer true advantages over its non-local competitors. We conclude that, while our model does not appear to be a viable contender to their non-local counterparts, it provides the ideal framework to advance the debate over violations of statistical independence via the superdeterministic route.