• DOI:10.1007/978-94-010-1795-4_17
• Corpus ID: 197457501

The Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics

@article{Kochen1967ThePO,
  title={The Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics},
  author={Simon Kochen and Ernst Specker},
  journal={Indiana University Mathematics Journal},
  year={1967},
  volume={17},
  pages={59-87}
}

• S. Kochen, E. Specker
• Published 1967
• Physics
• Indiana University Mathematics Journal

Forty years after the advent of quantum mechanics the problem of hidden variables, that is, the possibility of imbedding quantum theory into a classical theory, remains a controversial and obscure subject. Whereas to most physicists the possibility of a classical reinterpretation of quantum mechanics remains remote and perhaps irrelevant to current problems, a minority have kept the issue alive throughout this period. (See Freistadt [5] for a review of the problem and a comprehensive bibliography up to 1957.) As far as results are concerned there are on the one hand purported proofs of the non-existence of hidden variables, most notably von Neumann’s proof, and on the other, various attempts to introduce hidden variables such as de Broglie [4] and Bohm [1] and [2]. One of the difficulties in evaluating these contradictory results is that no exact mathematical criterion is given to enable one to judge the degree of success of these proposals.