Reichenbach's Pre-Common Cause Principle and Logical Independence

Abstract

In algebraic quantum field theory, some von Neumann algebra is associated with any finite open set in Minkowski space-time. Such a von Neumann algebra is called a local algebra. Let V1 and V2 be two spacelikely separated spacetime regions and let N(V1) and N(V2) be local algebras associated with V1 and V2 respectively. In the present paper it is shown that N(V1) and N(V2) are logically independent if and only if any correlation between projections of N(V1) and N(V2) has a Reichenbach's pre-common cause explanation.