Appendix 2: Further Reading
If you find your interest piqued by this little book, you may want to explore the subject further. Here I list some good readings. All include a discussion of Bell’s Theorem, although in some cases only tangentially.
Non-Technical Works
The following are specifically aimed at a general audience. I can testify from personal experience that are all very well written and a pleasure to read
Becker, Adam. What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics. New York: Basic Books, 2018.
As the title makes clear, this book is primarily concerned with attempts to understand what quantum theory is telling us about the world. It contains many personal anecdotes, and also much about the three “alternative” approaches that I mentioned in chapter 2
Bernstein, Jeremy. “John Stewart Bell: Quantum engineer,” in Jeremy Bernstein, Quantum Profiles. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 3–91.
Far broader in scope than most of the other readings I have listed here, Bernstein surveys the entire field of quantum theory and its many mysteries.
Gilder, Louisa. The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
With a novelist’s skill, Gilder humanizes and dramatizes the story of the discovery of entanglement. Much of the material in my chapter 11 is taken from this book.
Herbert, Nick. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics. New York: Anchor Press / Doubleday, 1985.
A broad survey of quantum theory’s mysteries.
Kaiser, David. How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Kaiser is a physicist and a historian of science: the title of his book tells it all. Much of the material in my chapters 4 and 12 is taken from this book.
Kaiser, David. “Quantum theory by starlight.” New Yorker (online), February 7, 2017, available at https://
Kaiser describes here the experiment that closed the freedom of choice loophole (in which he participated).
Kaiser, David. “Free will, video games, and the most profound quantum mystery.” New Yorker (online), May 9, 2018, available at https://
Kaiser describes here the experiment that used a video game to elicit random choices from people worldwide to be used in Bell-test experiments.
Zeilinger, Anton. Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010.
Zeilinger, a physicist at the forefront of contemporary experimental research on entanglement and Bell’s Theorem, provides an insider’s view of the field. Much of the material in my chapter 15 is taken from this book.
Semitechnical Books
You probably would need a certain amount of technical background to fully engage with the following books, but they are not solely for experts.
Freire, Olival. Quantum Dissidents: Rebuilding the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Berlin: Springer, 2015.
Friere is a historian of science. This book is particularly revealing on the “stigma” attached to thinking about the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Lewis, Peter J. Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Lewis is a philosopher: the title tells it all.
Whitaker, Andrew. John Stewart Bell and Twentieth-Century Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
A detailed look at Bell’s life and work, written by a physicist.
Other Forms of Bell’s Theorem
As I commented in appendix 1 on the GHZ theorem, since Bell’s discovery other forms of his theorem have been found. And as I commented in chapter 10, Bell’s Theorem is not really about physics at all. It is pure logic: a matter of analyzing all the ways a random variable can be distributed.
And in particular, it is not even solely about spin. Two different works have described a form of Bell’s Theorem using a “spin-free” approach.
d’Espagnat, Bernard. “The quantum theory and reality.” Scientific American (November 1, 1979), pp. 158–181.
The above article is written for a general audience. On the other hand, you may find yourself positively scared when you first pick up the following book, since it is intended for an audience of physics students. But do not give up! The specific section listed here requires no special training at all: once again, it is all a matter of pure logic.
Greenstein, George, and Arthur G. Zajonc. The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on Quantum Mechanics. 2nd edition. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2006, pp. 142–148. This describes a method developed by N. David Mermin.
In general, I would guess that if you found yourself comfortable with chapter 9’s treatment of a hidden-variable theory, or the appendix’s treatment of the GHZ Theorem, you will find yourself equally comfortable with either of the above two references.
But I cannot help but point you toward the article in which Mermin first introduced his new proof. I mentioned this article in chapter 9: it was immensely helpful to me in my efforts to understand Bell’s Theorem. Even though it is written for an audience of physicists, a great part of it consists of an utterly delightful history of the early arguments among the founders of quantum theory: you really should take a look at it!
Mermin, N. David. “Is the Moon there when nobody looks?” Physics Today 38 (April 1985): 38–47.