Schrödinger, Szilard and the prehistory of the EPR argument

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:25100066,
            doi = {10.48660/25100066},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25100066},
            author = {},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {Schr{\"o}dinger, Szilard and the prehistory of the EPR argument},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2025},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:25100066 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen’s “Can quantum mechanical description of reality be considered complete?”(1935) and Schrödinger’s “Die gegenwärtige Situation in derQuantenmechanik” (1936) are commonly accepted as the seminal papers for the modern study of quantum mechanical entanglement. However, not much has been known about the prehistory of these papers. By a study of Schrödinger’s correspondence and extensive research notes we show that Schrödinger was aware of what is essentially the EPR argument already in November 1931, after a talk by Einstein on the photon box thought experiment. We also note the importance of thei nput from Leo Szilard in Schrödinger’s notes, which credit Szilard both with the simplification of the photon box experiment to that of a collision between a photon and a mirror and with proposing a quantum mechanical state that is essentially the state used in the EPR argument.