2007/08/16 by Jeremy Butterfield, Butterfield, Jeremy
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0708.2192
59 pages latex, 3 figures. Forthcoming in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
arxiv created 2007/08/16 · openalex publication_date 2007/08/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I discuss various formulations of stochastic Einstein locality (SEL), which is a version of the idea of relativistic causality, i.e. the idea that influences propagate at most as fast as light. SEL is similar to Reichenbach's Principle of the Common Cause (PCC), and Bell's Local Causality. My main aim is to discuss formulations of SEL for a fixed background spacetime. I previously argued that SEL is violated by the outcome dependence shown by Bell correlations, both in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. Here I re-assess those verdicts in the light of some recent literature which argues that outcome dependence does not violate the PCC. I argue that the verdicts about SEL still stand. Finally, I briefly discuss how to formulate relativistic causality if there is no fixed background spacetime.