Schr\"odinger's unpublished hidden-variable model in the 1944-45 debate over the "Collapse of Determinism"

Abstract:In the mid-1940s, the question of whether quantum mechanics could be supplemented by deterministic hidden variables resurfaced in a debate in ^textit{Nature}. I show that Erwin Schrödinger drafted a hitherto unpublished response to this controversy. In it, Schrödinger provided an explicit hidden-variable model, thereby showing that such models could not be ruled out. I reconstruct the historical context of this forgotten manuscript and publish here the first transcription and analysis. Importantly, Schrödinger's proposal should be understood as a proof of principle rather than as evidence of his commitment to determinism.

History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2610.20752 [physics.hist-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.20752v1 [physics.hist-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.20752 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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