For nearly a century, quantum physics has carried a reputation for being deeply strange, so strange that even Albert Einstein rejected some of its implications, famously declaring that “God does not play dice with the universe.” Now, researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a new framework that suggests quantum phenomena may be far more intuitive than previously believed.

In a paper published in Physica Scripta, Amir Kalev and Itay Hen of USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute and USC Viterbi’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, along with physicist David H. Oaknin of Rafael Ltd., present a model showing that the seemingly magical correlations observed in quantum experiments can emerge from ordinary physical reasoning, without invoking anything mysterious, as previously thought by many.

These findings suggest that the seemingly “spooky” connections in quantum physics don’t require supernatural explanations. Instead, they can emerge from a deeper, more intuitive understanding of physical reality where directions in space are relative rather than absolute. This could eventually point toward new connections between quantum physics and our understanding of space and time.

The Quantum Puzzle

At the heart of their work lies one of physics’ most famous paradoxes: the CHSH experiment, named after physicists Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt. These experiments involve two directional detectors placed far apart, each measuring particles that originated from the same source and finding binary outcomes, +1 or -1.  When scientists analyze the results, a string of binary outcomes coming from one detector and a string of binary outcomes coming from the second detector, they find that the correlations between the measurements appear to violate basic rules of logic, rules captured by what’s known as the CHSH inequality.

“The correlations we find in those experiments don’t depend on the direction of either detector on its own, they only depend on the relative orientation of the two detectors,” explains Kalev.

A Different Perspective

The USC team’s key insight was recognizing that the basic rules of logic, as encapsulated in the CHSH mathematical inequalities and that quantum experiments appear to unequivocally violate, quietly assume something that may not be true: that directions in space, the same directions that the detectors points to, can be defined uniquely and absolutely rather than purely relationally.

“Once we questioned that assumption and treated directions as purely relational—defined only relative to one another—the apparent paradoxes began to disappear,” USC ISI’s Hen said about their work.

Their statistical model incorporates what they call “spontaneous symmetry breaking” of rotational symmetry. In their framework, while the relative orientation between the two detectors remains well-defined physical quantity, attempting to assign orientations to each detector with respect to some auxiliary absolute frame of reference and independently of each other leads to inconsistencies—specifically, a geometric phase that emerges when cycling through different measurement settings.

Crucially, this geometric phase preserves all the symmetry requirements of actual experiments while allowing correlations that match quantum mechanical predictions, including violations of the CHSH inequality.

Not Just Abstract Theory

The researchers emphasize that their work fully agrees with all known experimental results. “This work is primarily about understanding the theory,” Kalev said. “Our explanation fully agrees with all known experimental results, so it does not change how current technologies operate.”

However, the implications could be profound. “It may point toward deeper connections between quantum physics and our understanding of space and time, which could eventually inspire new ideas in fundamental physics,” Hen added.

The research, which began in early 2020 and concluded in late 2025, faced significant challenges. “The biggest challenge was not the mathematics itself, but understanding exactly what the mathematics was telling us physically and how to interpret it in a clear, consistent way,” the team notes.

A Healthy Debate

The physics community has responded with the kind of vigorous debate typical when long-held assumptions are challenged. “Some researchers find the ideas compelling and exciting, while others remain skeptical and unconvinced,” Kalev acknowledges. “This kind of debate is a healthy part of progress in fundamental science.”

USC’s collaborative environment proved essential to the work. “USC and ISI actively encourage collaboration across disciplines, bringing together physics, mathematics, and information science,” the researchers explain. “That environment makes it possible to question basic assumptions and pursue unconventional ideas that might not fit neatly within a single field.”

What Einstein Would Think

When asked whether their findings would have satisfied Einstein’s famous objections to quantum mechanics, Kalev offered a succinct response: “He can finally RIP.”

More seriously, their results suggest that much of quantum physics’ reputation for weirdness may stem from how we describe the world rather than how it actually works. “Quantum phenomena may not be inherently mysterious after all,” they conclude.

The team’s next goal is to expand this ‘relationship-only’ framework to cover all quantum behavior. By showing that quantum rules are based on relative connections—akin to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity—the researchers hope to finally bridge the gap between the physics of the very small (atoms) and the very large (planets). This could lead to a single, ‘unified’ theory that explains the entire universe with one consistent set of rules, solving a puzzle that has frustrated scientists for a century. “Along the way, we hope it may suggest new effects or predictions that can be tested experimentally,” Hen says.

Whether this new perspective will ultimately reshape our understanding of quantum mechanics remains to be seen. But for a field long dominated by the mantra that “nobody understands quantum mechanics,” any fresh approach that makes the theory more intuitive deserves serious consideration.

The paper, “Accounting for gauge symmetries in CHSH experiments,” is available as open access at Physica Scripta.

Published on January 20th, 2026

Last updated on January 21st, 2026