Taming Entanglement

TL;DR

This paper suggests that quantum entanglement and Bell correlations are actually artifacts of initial state preselection, which could reshape understanding of quantum nonlocality and influence causal modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation that entanglement arises from preselection, challenging traditional views and linking quantum correlations to selection bias.

Findings

EPR and Bell correlations can be explained as selection artefacts.

Preselection of initial states accounts for observed quantum correlations.

Implications for causal modeling and understanding of quantum nonlocality.

Abstract

In statistics and causal modeling it is common for a selection process to induce correlations in a subset of an uncorrelated ensemble. We propose that EPR and Bell correlations are selection artefacts of this kind. The selection process is preparation of the initial state of the relevant experiments. Choice of initial state amounts to preselection of a subensemble of a larger, uncorrelated, virtual ensemble of possible histories. Because it is preselection rather than postselection, the resulting correlations support the intuitive counterfactuals of the EPR argument and Bell nonlocality. In this respect, and in its temporal orientation, the case differs from familiar forms of selection bias. Given the ubiquity of quantum entanglement, the result may thus be of independent interest to students of causal modeling. The paper concludes with a discussion of its novel implications in that field.