J.S. Bell: First edition, first printing of Bell's refutation of the EPR Paradox

"the most profound discovery in science" -Henry Stapp

John S. Bell’s astonishing proof of ‘spooky action at a distance’;
rare first printing in original wrappers of
Bell's confirmation of quantum mechanics' description of nature

"Bell's proposed experiment was a variation on the EPR apparatus-a setup in which two particles that start out together are dispatched across a macroscopic distance before one is observed in a fashion that instantly defines the state of the other. Bell's contribution was to outline how an EPR-like experiment could be employed to test the classical assumption that nature works in a "local"-that is, mechanistic-way. The results were to reveal that the classical assumption is wrong- that nature is in some sense nonlocal. From this odd finding sprang considerations so astonishing as to render plausible the physicist Henry Stapp's opinion that Bell's theorem constitutes 'the most profound discovery in science'...

"...Locality is the supposition that one system can change another only if there is some sort of mechanical interaction between the two. According to relativity, no such interaction can occur at faster-than-light speed. ... To say that fiddling with one particle over here can instantly influence its sister particle over there is to assert that subatomic particles behave in a nonlocal way. This would overthrow the time-honored assumption of locality, and this is what Einstein found so repugnant about the situation, and why he constructed the original EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) thought experiment to highlight its apparent irrationality….

"... In all experiments conducted since, the verdict is clear: Bohr was right (nonlocal effects do occur in quantum states) and Einstein wrong (there are no hidden variables to explain nonlocality). Nature--on the subatomic scale at least--really is nonlocal. Fiddling with one particle really does mean that its sister particle is altered, instantly, even if it is far away, and neither hidden variables nor any other mechanistic scheme can rescue Einstein's belief in locality.” –Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang

BELL, John S. On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox. In: Physics, Vol.1, No. 3. New York: Physics Publishing Company, 1964. Quarto, original printed wrappers; housed in custom half-leather box. $6000.

First printing of John Bell's dramatic refutation of the Einstein Podolsky Rosen (EPR) Paradox, confirming the "completeness" and accuracy of quantum theory.

“Heisenberg and Schrödinger established the mathematical form of the theory, while Einstein and Bohr analysed many of its important features. However, it was John Bell who investigated quantum theory in the greatest depth and established what the theory can tell us about the fundamental nature of the physical world.” –Andrew Whitaker, “John Bell and the most profound discovery of science”, Physics World, Dec. 1998.

In 1935, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen published a study concluding that because, in quantum mechanics, every element of physical reality did not have a counterpart in the physical theory, it could not be complete theory or description of nature. Specifically, the EPR Paradox (as their study became known) argued for the presence of some "hidden variables" in nature that were not recognized by the quantum mechanics.

Bell's startling paper refuting the EPR Paradox proved to be a powerful victory for quantum mechanics, confirming the "incomplete" nature of reality that quantum mechanics predicts and that quantum nonlocality, "quantum weirdness", and even Uncertainty itself, cannot be the consequence of an incomplete theory, but must itself be a feature of reality. Fine condition. Rare, particularly in original wrappers.