Future-input dependence for wave-particle duality and quantum measurements

Hidden-variable models of quantum phenomena which conform to Bell's local causality criterion are ruled out by Bell's Theorem. An attractive alternative is to consider time-reversal-symmetric models, with a "past hypothesis" inducing a weaker arrow of time. Specific toy models of this type have been shown to reproduce the Bell correlations for entangled pairs [1], and to lead to interesting consideratons in the context of quantum computing [2]. In the present work, the time symmetry is broken by applying initial conditions and allowing for environmental degrees of freedom, so that apparatuses performing irreversible measurements may be described in detail. The result is that the approaches to relieving quantum mysteries by describing quantum phenomena in terms of excitations of fields rather than particles, and by appealing to decoherence theory, no longer face the well-known difficulties related to quantum nonlocality and the question of how a single outcome occurs, rather than all possible outcomes. The two-slit interference experiment, with or without detection events at one of the slits, will be discussed in detail.

[1] Wharton and Argaman, Rev. Mod. Phys. 92, 021002 (2020).
[2] Argaman, Entropy 23, 49 (2021).