Book section : Chapter
What price statistical independence? How Einstein missed the photon
- Abstract:
- Einstein’s celebrated 1905 argument for light quanta was phrased in terms of the concept of ‘statistical independence’– wrongly. It was in fact based on the notion of local, non-interacting entities, and as such was neutral on the question of statistical independence. A specific kind of statistical dependence had already been introduced by Gibbs, in connection with the Gibbs paradox, but went unrecognised by Einstein. A modification of Einstein’s argument favours the latter. This kind of statistical dependence, as eventually attributed by Einstein to Bose, although expressed, in quantum mechanics, by the (anti)symmetrisation of the wave-function, does not require ‘genuine’ entanglement. This chapter demystifies quantum indistinguishability; its novel features derive from the finiteness of state-space in quantum mechanics not indistinguishability.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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Access Document
- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 467.8KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/978-3-030-34316-3_22
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Host title:
- Quantum, Probablity, Logic
- Pages:
- 479-503
- Chapter number:
- 22
- Series:
- Jerusalem Studies in Philosophy and History of Science
- Publication date:
- 2020-04-08
- DOI:
- EISBN:
- 9783030343163
- ISBN:
- 9783030343156
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
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Chapter
- Pubs id:
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1138354
- Local pid:
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pubs:1138354
- Deposit date:
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2020-10-20
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- Copyright date:
- 2020
- Rights statement:
- © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the chapter. The final version is available online from Springer at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34316-3_22
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