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Bell’s Thunderbolt (1964)

In: The Roots of Things

Author

Listed:
  • Alan A. Grometstein

Abstract

In1964, after pondering Bohm’s configuration (the EPR-B experiment), John Bell proposed that the spins of the two electrons in a pair need not be measured along the same axis.1 That is, the analyzer which measures the spin of electron #1 need not be aligned parallel to its distant companion analyzer, awaiting electron #2. Bell argued that information could be gained by this more general apparatus that is unavailable if the two analyzers are always fixed along the same axis.a The implications of Bell’s analysis were so intriguing that efforts were made to implement his configuration. It proved simpler to replace the entangled spin of a pair of electrons with the entangled polarization of a pair of photons emitted from a deexciting atom. Thus, most results of EPR-B experiments are based on an atom emitting two photons in opposite directions; if the atom is properly prepared, the polarizations of the configuration consist of two intermixed sets of data: a limited set for runs in which the analyzers happen to have the same tilt (Bohm’s configuration, characterized as SameTilt) and a larger set in which the analyzers have different tilts (Bell’s configuration proper, which we called DiffTilt in Chapter 17). We discussed the limited set in the previous chapter; in this chapter we turn to the larger set.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan A. Grometstein, 1999. "Bell’s Thunderbolt (1964)," Springer Books, in: The Roots of Things, chapter 0, pages 491-513, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4615-4877-5_18
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4615-4877-5_18
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