Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s

Abstract

I present the reconstruction of the involvement of Karl Popper in the community of physicists concerned with foundations of quantum mechanics, in the 1980s. At that time Popper gave active contribution to the research in physics, of which the most significant is a new version of the EPR thought experiment, alleged to test different interpretations of quantum mechanics. The genesis of such an experiment is reconstructed in detail, and an unpublished letter by Popper is reproduced in the present paper to show that he formulated his thought experiment already two years before its first publication in 1982. The debate stimulated by the proposed experiment as well as Popper's role in the physics community throughout 1980s is here analysed in detail by means of personal correspondence and publications.

27 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in 'Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics'

References in corpus (3)

• The origins of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics (and other critical activities) in italy during the 1970s
• Popper's experiment, Copenhagen Interpretation and Nonlocality
• Popper's Experiment: A Modern Perspective

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Karl Popper's Forgotten Role in the Quantum Debate at the Edge between Philosophy and Physics in 1950s and 1960s
• An Unpublished Debate Brought to Light: Karl Popper's Enterprise against the Logic of Quantum Mechanics
• Beyond method: The diatribe between Feyerabend and Popper over the foundations of quantum mechanics
• "Philosophysics" at the University of Vienna: The (pre-)history of foundations of quantum physics in the Viennese cultural context
• Characterizing the Generalized Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen State and Extensions