Is Quantum Mechanics Compatible with a Deterministic Universe? Two Interpretations of Quantum Probabilities

TL;DR

This paper examines whether quantum mechanics can be compatible with determinism by analyzing hidden variables and probability interpretations, using the Aspect EPR experiment as a case study, and finds that quantum probabilities can be understood deterministically.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of quantum probabilities and hidden parameters, demonstrating that quantum mechanics can be compatible with a deterministic universe without paradoxes.

Findings

Quantum probabilities in the EPR experiment can be interpreted as conditional probabilities.

No paradoxes arise when understanding quantum probabilities as conditional.

Quantum theory does not necessarily imply indeterminism.

Abstract

Two problems will be considered: the question of hidden parameters and the problem of Kolmogorovity of quantum probabilities. Both of them will be analyzed from the point of view of two distinct understandings of quantum mechanical probabilities. Our analysis will be focused, as a particular example, on the Aspect-type EPR experiment. It will be shown that the quantum mechanical probabilities appearing in this experiment can be consistently understood as conditional probabilities without any paradoxical consequences. Therefore, nothing implies in the Aspect experiment that quantum theory is incompatible with a deterministic universe.