Mermin Research Articles

Quantum Mysteries for No One

I provide a critical reassessment of David Mermin’s influential and misleading parable, “Quantum Mysteries for Anyone”, identifying its errors and resolving them with a complete analysis of the quantum experiment it is meant to portray. Accessible to popular readership and requiring no knowledge of quantum physics at all, his exposition describes the curious behaviour of a machine that is designed to parody the empirical results of quantum experiments monitoring the spins of a pair of electrons under various conditions. The mysteries are said to unfold from contradictory results produced by a signal process that is proposed to explain them. I find that these results derive from a mathematical error of neglect, coupled with a confusion of two distinct types of experiments under consideration. One of these, a gedankenexperiment, provides the context in which the fabled defiance of Bell’s inequality is thought to emerge. The errors are corrected by the recognition of functional relations embedded within the experimental conditions that have been long unnoticed. A Monte Carlo simulation of results in accord with the actual abstemious claims of quantum theory supports probability values that Mermin decries as unwarranted. However, the distribution it suggests is not definitive, in accord with the expressed agnostic position of quantum theory regarding measurements that cannot be executed. Bounding quantum probabilities are computed for the results of the gedankenexperiment relevant to Bell’s inequality which inspired the parable. The problem is embedded in a 3 × 3 design of Stern-Gerlach magnet orientations at two observation stations. Computational resolution on the basis of Bruno de Finetti’s fundamental theorem of probability requires the evaluation of a battery of three paired linear programming problems. Though technicalities are ornate, the message is clear. There are no mysteries of quantum mechanics that derive from mistaken understandings of Bell’s inequality… for anyone.

Free multiplicities on the moduli of X3

In this note we study the freeness of the module of derivations on all moduli of the X3 arrangement with multiplicities. We use homological techniques stemming from work of Yuzvinsky, Brandt, and Terao which have recently been developed for multi-arrangements by the first author, Francisco, Mermin, and Schweig.

Walter Kohn (1923–2016)

Walter Kohn (1923–2016)

Classical and quantum framing of the Now

The trouble David Mermin is having with the concept of Now is similar to the problem that Plato, Aristotle, and Martin Heidegger had with the concept of being. Both have no meaning when considered as individual points; they are continuous entities and can only be understood as such. Heidegger pointed out that for most people, being and Now are self-evident. Apparently, it’s only physicists and philosophers who are embarrassed by their lack of understanding of such obvious concepts. According to Ockham’s razor, the simplest explanation is usually the best one. And Albert Einstein, who venerated simplicity, once said that the only reason time exists is “so that everything doesn’t happen all at once.” That statement may seem facetious, but it is a corollary of his equating of space and time.© 2014 American Institute of Physics.

Physics: QBism puts the scientist back into science

A participatory view of science resolves quantum paradoxes and finds room in classical physics for 'the Now', says N. David Mermin.

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Impressionism, Realism, and the aging of Ashcroft and Mermin

Measured responses to quantum Bayesianism

Measured responses to quantum Bayesianism

BOOKS: "BCS: 50 YEARS; MORE AND DIFFERENT: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon; ADVANCES IN ATOMIC PHYSICS: An Overview", Reviewed by Malcolm Beasley and N. David Mermin

BOOKS: "BCS: 50 YEARS; MORE AND DIFFERENT: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon; ADVANCES IN ATOMIC PHYSICS: An Overview", Reviewed by Malcolm Beasley and N. David Mermin

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract

Mermin habitually answers opinions, real and abstract