EPR anomalies, \photon" amplitudes and Malus' Law: an intuitive classical approach

Observation shows that, to a very close approximation, real polarisers and photomultipliers reproduce Malus' Law even at the \single photon" level, giving a sinusoidal variation of \photon" count with polarisation angle. At rst sight, this appears to rule out various realist models of polarisers and detectors, and casts doubt on their ability to explain \paired-photon" EPR experiments. The observed violations of Bell inequalities appear to require narrower peaks and broader troughs than are produced by a perfect Malus' Law. It is shown here in principle how amplitude restrictions on the signal pairs can contribute towards the reconciliation of the apparent connicts. This paper follows on from earlier work on \The Chaotic Ball" papers (Thompson, 1995a; Thompson, 1995c; Thomp-son, 1995b), which between them illustrate the possibility of complete realist explanations of many EPR experiments. The way is opened up for new understanding of the nature of the \quantum ensemble", the mechanism behind Malus' Law, and what it is that photomultipliers actually detect. It is asserted that the only satisfactory way to model complete EPR experiments is to treat light as purely wave in nature.