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Concept
Superdeterminism
Summary
Superdeterminism describes the set of local hidden-variable theories consistent with the results of experiments derived from Bell's theorem which include a local correlation between the measurement settings and the state being measured. Superdeterministic theories are not interpretations of quantum mechanics, but deeper theories which reproduce the predictions of quantum mechanics on average, for which a few toy models have been proposed. In such theories, "the probabilities of quantum theory then become no more mysterious than those used in classical statistical mechanics." By postulating that systems being measured are correlated with the settings of the measurements apparatus, what Bell described as a "vital assumption" of his theorem is violated. A hidden variables theory which is superdeterministic can thus fulfill Bell's notion of local causality and still violate the inequalities derived from Bell's theorem. Unlike loopholes in Bell tests, superdeterministic theories cannot be excluded by Bell-type experiments (though they may be bounded) as ultimately the past light cones of all measurement settings and measured states overlap at the Big Bang implying a necessarily shared causal past and thus the possibility of local causal dependence.
Bell's theorem assumes that the measurements performed at each detector can be chosen independently of each other and of the hidden variables that determine the measurement outcome. This relation is often referred to as measurement independence or statistical independence. In a superdeterministic theory this relation is not fulfilled; the hidden variables are necessarily correlated with the measurement setting. Since the choice of measurements and the hidden variable are predetermined, the results at one detector can depend on which measurement is done at the other without any need for information to travel faster than the speed of light. The assumption of statistical independence is sometimes referred to as the free choice or free will assumption, since its negation implies that human experimentalists are not free to choose which measurement to perform.
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