Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity: Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics (Aristotelian Society Series)

The experimental verification of violations of Bell's Inequality has demonstrated that our world is fundamentally unlike the world as the classical world-view would have it: particles created together somehow remain "in communication" with one another irrespective of the distance between them, even when they are so far separated that light could not connect them. This superluminal communication appears to contradict the main tenets of relativity. This work examines the potential conflict between the two, asking what relativity really forbids and what quantum theory demands. After a non-technical presentation of Bell's results and of special relativity, chapters are devoted to superluminal energy transmission, signalling, causation and information transmission. The final chapters investigate the technical demands of Lorentz invariance and its analogs in general relativity. This book does not presuppose technical background in physics.