Quantum Milestones, 1964: John Stewart Bell Rings in New Era of Quantum Theory (2022)

Special Feature Quantum Milestones, 1964: John Stewart Bell Quietly Rings in New Era of Quantum Theory In 1964, Bell showed that quantum physics predicts correlations that violate certain inequalities. The work implied that quantum mechanics is not compatible with locality, even if there were “hidden variables” not accounted for in quantum theory. CERN John Bell lectures on his theorem in 1982. CERN John Bell lectures on his theorem in 1982. × For the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, we are republishing stories on the history of quantum physics from the archives of Physics Magazine and APS News. The original version of this story was published in APS News on October 13, 2022. When the most important quantum theory paper in 30 years was published on November 4, 1964, virtually no one noticed. “On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox” [1] accumulated fewer than a dozen citations in its first six years, and when it garnered wider attention, many physicists dismis ... Read full article.