Homer Nodded: Von Neumann’s Surprising Oversight
Homer Nodded: Von Neumann’s Surprising Oversight
We review the famous no-hidden-variables theorem in von Neumann's 1932 book on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics (Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik, Springer, Berlin, 1932). We describe the notorious gap in von Neumann's argument, pointed out by Hermann (Abhandlungen der Fries'schen Schule 6:75–152, 1935) and, more famously, by Bell (Rev …