How come the Correlations?

TL;DR

This paper explores the nature of quantum entanglement and correlations in space-time, questioning how space-like separated events exhibit such correlations without communication, and discusses implications for the understanding of space-time and causality.

Contribution

It offers a conceptual analysis of quantum correlations in space-time, challenging classical notions of communication and causality, and relates to Bell's theorem and the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Findings

Correlations in quantum entanglement cannot be explained by local causes.

Bell's inequality violation refutes the idea of pre-established correlations.

The nature of space-time may need reconsideration in quantum contexts.

Abstract

In relativity there is space-time out there. In quantum mechanics there is entanglement. Entanglement manifests itself by producing correlations between classical events (e.g. the firing of some detectors) at any two space-time locations. If the locations are time-like separated, i.e. one is in the future of the other, then there is no specific difficulty to understand the correlations. But if the two locations are space-like separated, the problem is different. How can the two space-time locations out there know about what happens in each other without any sort of communication? If space-time really exists, the locations must do something like communicating. Or it was all set up at the Beginning. But the correlations depend also on the free choice of the experimentalists, one in each space-time location. This allowed John Bell to derive his inequality and the experimentalists to violate it, thus refuting the assumption that it was all set up at the beginning: the Correlations can't be explained by common causes.