Could a hidden variable explain the weirdness of quantum physics? - Big Think

In the early 1950s, physicist David Bohm added an extra level of explanation to quantum theory, one capable of describing the electron’s position with certainty.

Just as a conductor controls how different sections of an orchestra play during a symphony, Bohm’s pilot would determine how the wave function branched out into its different probable states.

In 1964, Irish physicist John Bell, working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), proposed a brilliant way to test if an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that included local hidden variables was better at describing the results of experiments with entangled particles.

The uptake is that over the past four decades, Bell’s test has been implemented in real experiments — which were awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics — and the results were truly shocking: There are no local hidden variable theories compatible with quantum mechanics.

Nonlocal influences acting superluminally between members of spatially separated entangled quantum pairs — these are ghosts that seem to be real.

Next week we will conclude this series of articles with an overview of the different interpretations of quantum physics still being passionately debated among physicists.