PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv
Schrödinger's unpublished hidden-variable model in the 1944-45 debate over the "Collapse of Determinism"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 I show that Erwin Schrödinger drafted a hitherto unpublished response to this controversy.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.
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BibTeX
@misc{santo2026schrödingers,
title = {{Schrödinger's unpublished hidden-variable model in the 1944-45 debate over the "Collapse of Determinism"}},
author = {Flavio Del Santo},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.20752},
eprint = {2610.20752},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20752},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Schrödinger's unpublished hidden-variable model in the 1944-45 debate over the "Collapse of Determinism"
AU - Flavio Del Santo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.20752
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20752
AB - 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 I show that Erwin Schrödinger drafted a hitherto unpublished response to this controversy.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.
ER -