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Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Richard Healey
Richard Healey*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, 213 Social Sciences Bldg. #27, Tucson, AZ 85721.
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Abstract

At first sight the Aharonov-Bohm effect appears nonlocal, though not in the way EPR/ Bell correlations are generally acknowledged to be nonlocal. This paper applies an analysis of nonlocality to the Aharonov-Bohm effect to show that its peculiarities may be blamed either on a failure of a principle of local action or on a failure of a principle of separability. Different interpretations of quantum mechanics disagree on how blame should be allocated. The parallel between the Aharonov-Bohm effect and violations of Bell inequalities turns out to be so close that a balanced assessment of the nature and significance of quantum nonlocality requires a detailed study of both effects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 18 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I wish to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation, under whose grant SBER94–22185 this work was completed. Thanks also to a number of colleagues, especially Paul Teller and one other anonymous reviewer, for encouragement and advice.

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