NBA History of Science Seminar

Roberto Angeloni, "The holistic aspect of the phenomenon of entanglement."

Roberto Angeloni, Marie Curie Intra-European-Fellow at CNRS/SPHERE, Université Paris 7 - Denis Diderot

It is my aim to compare the conceptual and historical paths that led Bohr, Einstein and Schrödinger to develop their positions with regard to the phenomenon of entanglement.

For this purpose, the concept of holism and non-separability in relation to the views of Bohr and Schrödinger, and separability, in relation to the view of Einstein, will be crucial for reconstructing their standpoints. The idea will be upheld that the concept of non-separability underlies the phenomenon of entanglement.

Furthermore, I shall place emphasis on the divergences between Bohr and Schrödinger in spite of their shared holistic world view. A comparison between the above- mentioned positions will be sketched in relation to some relevant historical cases, such as the theory of virtual oscillators represented by the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory, the Solvay Conference of 1927 and the positions regarding the phenomenon of entanglement before and after the publication of the Einsten-Podolsky-Rosen paper from 1935.