Is the Moon there if nobody looks: Bell Inequalities and Physical Reality

Abstract

Various Bell inequalities are trivial algebraic properties satisfied by each line of particular data spreadsheets.It is surprising that their violation in some experiments, allows to speculate about the existence of nonlocal influences in Nature and to doubt the existence of the objective external physical reality. Such speculations are rooted in incorrect interpretations of quantum mechanics and in a failure of local realistic hidden variable models to reproduce quantum predictions for spin polarisation correlation experiments. These hidden variable models use counterfactual joint probability distributions of only pairwise measurable random variables to prove the inequalities. In real experiments Alice and Bob, using 4 incompatible pairs of experimental settings, estimate imperfect correlations between clicks, registered by their detectors. Clicks announce detection of photons and are coded by 1 or -1. Expectations of corresponding ,only pairwise measurable, random variables are estimated and compared with quantum predictions. These estimates violate significantly the inequalities. Since all these random variables cannot be jointly measured , a joint probability distribution of them does not exist and various Bell inequalities may not be derived. Thus it is not surprising that they are violated. Moreover,if contextual setting dependent parameters describing measuring instruments are correctly included in the description, then imperfect correlations between the clicks may be explained in a locally causal way. In this paper we review and rephrase several arguments proving that the violation of various Bell inequalities may neither justify the quantum nonlocality nor allow for doubt regarding the existence of atoms, electrons and other invisible elementary particles which are building blocks of the visible world around us including ourselves.

30 pages , 42 figures. In this version some remaining misprints in particular the numbering of the sections were corrected and one reference added

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