Causality in the Quantum World

Mathematical models for deducing cause-effect relationships from statistical data have been successful in diverse areas of science (see Ref. [1] and references therein). Such models can be applied, for instance, to establish causal relationships between smoking and cancer or to analyze risks in construction projects. Can similar models be extended to the microscopic world governed by the laws of quantum mechanics? Answering this question could lead to advances in quantum information and to a better understanding of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Developing quantum extensions of causal models, however, has proven challenging because of the peculiar features of quantum mechanics. For instance, if two or more quantum systems are entangled, it is hard to deduce whether statistical correlations between them imply a cause-effect relationship. John-Mark Allen at the University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues have now proposed a quantum causal model based on a generalization of an old principle known as Reichenbach’s common cause principle [2].