Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar (Tuesday - Week 3, MT23)

I review concepts of locality and separability in quantum mechanics (QM), with a focus on relationships between different interpretations of the concepts and their consequences for the EPR argument and Bell's theorem. I first summarise the EPR argument and two versions of Bell's theorem, highlighting several assumed notions of locality.  I then distinguish between locality and separability by characterising the former as a matter of dynamical influence and the latter as a matter of ontology, and analyse three definitions of separability. Finally, I apply these notions to interpretations of QM. I will argue that the combination of the EPR argument and Bell's theorem suggests that the world abides by some notion of nonlocality or nonseparability.

The PoP-grunch (Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch) is a weekly informal seminar in which graduate students in Philosophy of Physics present their work in progress. Anyone can attend although please note that Meeting Room 8 is limited to 8 people. Anyone interested in presenting or being added to the mailing list should contact Dominik Ehrenfels dominik.ehrenfels@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.