Relational Interpretation of the Wave Function and a Possible Way Around Bell’s Theorem

The famous “spooky action at a distance” in the EPR-scenario is shown to be a local interaction, once entanglement is interpreted as a kind of “nearest neighbor” relation among quantum systems. Furthermore, the wave function itself is interpreted as encoding the “nearest neighbor” relations between a quantum system and spatial points. This interpretation becomes natural, if we view space and distance in terms of relations among spatial points. Therefore, “position” becomes a purely relational concept. This relational picture leads to a new perspective onto the quantum mechanical formalism, where many of the “weird” aspects, like the particle-wave duality, the non-locality of entanglement, or the “mystery” of the double-slit experiment, disappear. Furthermore, this picture circumvents the restrictions set by Bell’s inequalities, i.e., a possible (realistic) hidden variable theory based on these concepts can be local and at the same time reproduce the results of quantum mechanics. PACS: 03.65.Ud, 04.60.Nc