{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T07:44:04Z","timestamp":1780386244183,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,11,16]],"date-time":"2015-11-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1447632000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Correlations related to quantum entanglement have convinced many physicists that there must be some at-a-distance connection between separated events, at the quantum level. In the late 1940s, however, O. Costa de Beauregard proposed that such correlations can be explained without action at a distance, so long as the influence takes a zigzag path, via the intersecting past lightcones of the events in question. Costa de Beauregard\u2019s proposal is related to what has come to be called the retrocausal loophole in Bell\u2019s Theorem, but\u2014like that loophole\u2014it receives little attention, and remains poorly understood. Here we propose a new way to explain and motivate the idea. We exploit some simple symmetries to show how Costa de Beauregard\u2019s zigzag needs to work, to explain the correlations at the core of Bell\u2019s Theorem. As a bonus, the explanation shows how entanglement might be a much simpler matter than the orthodox view assumes\u2014not a puzzling feature of quantum reality itself, but an entirely unpuzzling feature of our knowledge of reality, once zigzags are in play.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e17117752","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,11,16]],"date-time":"2015-11-16T10:17:10Z","timestamp":1447669030000},"page":"7752-7767","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":45,"title":["Disentangling the Quantum World"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Huw","family":"Price","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ken","family":"Wharton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"San Jos\u00e9 State University, San Jos\u00e9, CA 95192-0106, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,11,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"555","DOI":"10.1017\/S0305004100013554","article-title":"Discussion of probability relations between separated systems","volume":"31","year":"1935","journal-title":"Math. 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