{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T05:08:24Z","timestamp":1789103304147,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key R&D Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2024YFB4611904"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024YFB4611904"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Beijing Natural Science Foundation","award":["IS25052"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IS25052"]}]},{"name":"Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences","award":["C12025C101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["C12025C101"]}]},{"award":["C12025C101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["C12025C101"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/042pgcv68","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The standard interpretation of quantum measurement on entangled systems holds that measuring one particle nonlocally collapses the wavefunction of its spacelike-separated partner. We argue that this conclusion rests on a false presupposition: that subsystems of entangled systems possess independent ontic states. If the global wavefunction is the sole ontic object (\u03c8-ontic holism), then for entangled systems, there is no \u201cstate of B\u201d to be affected by measurement at A. Measurement is a local dynamical process\u2014concretely modeled by continuous spontaneous localization\u2014that destroys one local wavefunction component at the measurement site; the global state factorizes as a consequence, and subsystem ontology emerges for the first time. The transition of the distant particle\u2019s reduced density matrix from mixed to pure reflects this emergence of separability, not a physical change at the distant location. The framework satisfies no-signaling and embraces the contextuality required by the Kochen\u2013Specker and GHZ theorems. We are explicit about its relation to Bell\u2019s theorem: Bell local causality (factorizability) fails, as it must in any empirically adequate theory, but the failure is confined to outcome independence and is identified with the nonseparability of the global ontic state, while parameter independence\u2014and with it the locality of the dynamics\u2014holds exactly. Decoherence provides the mechanism by which the global wavefunction factorizes and classical separability emerges. The apparent nonlocality of quantum mechanics is thus reinterpreted as nonseparability: the fundamental ontology is holistic, but the dynamics are local.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e28091009","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T14:02:48Z","timestamp":1788962568000},"page":"1009","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Quantum Nonseparability Without Nonlocality: A \u03c8-Ontic Holistic Account of Entangled Measurement"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8405-0475","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Everett X.","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101400, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"777","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRev.47.777","article-title":"Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?","volume":"47","author":"Einstein","year":"1935","journal-title":"Phys. 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