The Spooky Quantum Phenomenon You’ve Never Heard Of

The Spooky Quantum Phenomenon You’ve Never Heard Of


Katie McCormick

“Nonlocality is spectacular. I mean, it’s like magic,” said Adán Cabello, a physicist at the University of Seville in Spain.

But Cabello and others are interested in investigating a lesser-known but equally magical aspect of quantum mechanics: contextuality. Contextuality says that properties of particles, such as their position or polarization, exist only within the context of a measurement. Instead of thinking of particles’ properties as having fixed values, consider them more like words in language, whose meanings can change depending on the context: “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas.”

Bell also proved a similar theorem about contextuality. He and, separately, Simon Kochen and Ernst Specker showed that it is impossible for a quantum system to have hidden variables that define the values of all their properties in all possible contexts.

In 2009, contextuality, a seemingly esoteric aspect of the underlying fabric of reality, got a direct application: One of the simplified versions of the original Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem was shown to be equivalent to a basic quantum computation.

In February, Cabello and Kim announced that they had closed every plausible loophole by performing a “loophole free” Bell-Kochen-Specker experiment.

Thanks for that find, Sci!

I have always felt a little uneasy about discussions like this. I mean when you want to measure the spin of an electron about some particular axis, you have to apply a magnetic field along that axis. That is basically like twisting a gyro to rotate in a different direction - a torq has to be applied.

Thus the quantum measurement seems to be better described as, "you bash it and then measure its spin"!

I have never seen this discussed anywhere.

Thanks for that find, Sci!

I have always felt a little uneasy about discussions like this. I mean when you want to measure the spin of an electron about some particular axis, you have to apply a magnetic field along that axis. That is basically like twisting a gyro to rotate in a different direction - a torq has to be applied.

Thus the quantum measurement seems to be better described as, "you bash it and then measure its spin"!

I have never seen this discussed anywhere.

Contextuality is an essential part of the model of an informational reality.  Quantum Contextuality is not new, just being newly appreciated.

When I speak of real-world probabilities it is based on the background of a intra-contextualized informational environment.  An environment classified by wave functions and interference patterns.  Where meaningful outcomes have a "gravity" of their own.  A "gravity" where its outcomes are from the activity of mind and can be measured.

But rather than face a meaning-full science method, where mind is a natural variable, they have been looking to ditch contextuality for 20 years.

Researchers continue to think about contextuality and to argue about whether we should want to avoid it. They have adapted the Kochen–Specker theorem to clarify the meaning of contextuality and to come up with different ways to talk about it.

An influential result came in 2004, when physicist Rob Spekkens from Canada's Perimeter Institute found a way to think about contextuality in theories besides quantum mechanics. His work makes it possible to ask if we can use a different theory in order to avoid contextuality, and what other weirdness we have to accept to avoid it.

https://plus.maths.org/content/contextua...ntum-thing