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The Sum Rule is Well-Confirmed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Clark Glymour
Clark Glymour*
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
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Extract

Simon Kochen and Ernst Specker's well-known argument ([6]) against hidden variable theories for quantum mechanics is also an argument against the possibility of quantum systems having, simultaneously, precise values for all of the dynamical quantities associated with such systems. Devices for defeating the argument were in the literature even before its publication, but recently Arthur Fine has raised a new difficulty ([4]). Fine points out that Kochen and Specker's argument requires the following principles:

Sum Rule: At all times, in all states, the value of the quantity with operator A + B is the sum of the values of the quantity with operator A and the quantity with operator B, provided A, B commute.

Product Rule: At all times, in all states, the value of the quantity with operator AB is the product of the values of the quantities with operators A and B, provided A, B commute.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , March 1977 , pp. 86 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am indebted to Mr. Richard Healey and to Mr. James Van Aken for removing many of my confusions about the subject of this note.

References

REFERENCES

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