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For $|G_N^{-}⟩=(|0{⟩}^{\otimes N}-|1{⟩}^{\otimes N})/\sqrt{2}$, let $O_j$ have one Pauli X gate at site $j$ and Pauli Y gates elsewhere, and let $X_N=X^{\otimes N}$. The relations $Y|0⟩=i|1⟩$, $Y|1⟩=-i|0⟩$ show that $O_j|G_N^{-}⟩$ is proportional to $|G_N^{-}⟩$ exactly when $N$ is odd. In that case its eigenvalue is ${\lambda }_N=(-1{)}^{(N+1)/2}$, while $X_N$ always has eigenvalue $-1$.

Under the EPR criterion of reality and locality, each site's $X$ and $Y$ outcomes have predetermined values $x_j,y_j\in \{\pm 1\}$. Multiplying the $N$ certain equations $x_j{\prod }_{k\ne j}{y}_k={\lambda }_N$ gives ${\prod }_j{x}_j={\lambda }_N$ when $N$ is odd, since every $y_k$ appears an even number of times. This contradicts the certain quantum value $-1$ precisely when $N\equiv 3(\mathrm{mod}4)$. Thus the displayed GHZ state gives an infinite family of perfect-correlation contradictions with local hidden-variable theory, without an inequality.

Write $|0⟩=|\uparrow ⟩$, $|1⟩=|\downarrow ⟩$, and use $X_j,Y_j$ for the Pauli matrices on particle $j$. Their actions on the computational basis areSet $P_1=X_1{Y}_2{Y}_3$, $P_2=Y_1{X}_2{Y}_3$, $P_3=Y_1{Y}_2{X}_3$, and $P_4=X_1{X}_2{X}_3$. Any two distinct operators in this list differ by an $X$ versus $Y$ at exactly two sites. At each such site $XY=-YX$, while factors on different particles commute. Swapping the two full products therefore introduces two minus signs, givingThis is the Pauli-string commutation parity rule. Each product is Hermitian and squares to the identity, so its only eigenvalues are $\pm 1$.

For the negative-phase Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state, put $|G_{-}⟩=(|000⟩-|111⟩)/\sqrt{2}$. The two $Y$ factors in each of $P_1,P_2,P_3$ contribute $i^2=-1$ on $|000⟩$ and $(-i{)}^2=-1$ on $|111⟩$. Thus these operators take $|000⟩$ to $-|111⟩$ and $|111⟩$ to $-|000⟩$. By contrast, $P_4$ flips these two basis states without a phase. ConsequentlyThe GHZ state is therefore a simultaneous eigenstate of the four commuting products. As a sign check, direct multiplication givesThis is compatible with the displayed quantum eigenvalues.

Now apply the EPR criterion of reality together with locality for the spacelike separated particles. In the context with local settings $X_1,Y_2,Y_3$, the product of the three outcomes is certainly $+1$. Therefore the two remote $Y$ outcomes predict the first particle's $X$ outcome with certainty, without disturbing it under the locality assumption. The other perfect-correlation contexts similarly predict each particle's $X$ or $Y$ outcome from measurements performed only on the other particles. The EPR criterion of reality then assigns predetermined local values $x_j,y_j\in \{+1,-1\}$ to these six observables. Locality makes the value assigned at one site independent of which measurements were chosen at the other sites.

To reproduce the three certain mixed-setting quantum predictions, every such assignment must satisfyMultiplying these scalar equations cancels each squared $y_j$ and gives $x_1{x}_2{x}_3=+1$. But the all-$X$ quantum prediction, from the $P_4$ eigenvalue, is $x_1{x}_2{x}_3=-1$ with certainty. HenceThe perfect GHZ correlations contradict the simultaneous local elements of reality inferred by the EPR argument. No statistical Bell inequality is needed. The locality assumption is essential to that inference; the certainty criterion without the premise that distant choices cannot disturb the local element does not by itself imply a local hidden-variable model. Nor does the argument require simultaneous measurement of $X$ and $Y$ on a single particle: different experimental contexts establish the perfect predictions, and it is the EPR/locality interpretation that attempts to assign all their values at once.

The EPR criterion of reality proposes that a quantity has an element of physical reality if its value can be predicted with certainty without disturbing the system. To use remote predictions this way, one additionally assumes locality: the choice and execution of a measurement in quantum mechanics on separated particles cannot disturb the local physical properties of the remaining particle. The contradiction below is with this combination of the criterion and locality, rather than with a definition of reality alone.

Use the computational basis $|0⟩=|\uparrow ⟩$, $|1⟩=|\downarrow ⟩$ and the conventional Pauli matricesFor each site $j$, let $O_j$ be the tensor product of $X$ at that site and $Y$ at all other sites. For $N=4M+3$, the number of $Y$ factors is $N-1=4M+2$, soThe minus sign in the given GHZ state then impliesHence every one-$X$, remaining-$Y$ product has measurement outcome $+1$ with certainty, while the all-$X$ product has outcome $-1$ with certainty. These are experimentally separate local Pauli measurements on identically prepared copies, not joint measurements of $X$ and $Y$ on the same particle.

For a chosen site, the other $N-1$ sites can determine its $X$ outcome with certainty by measuring $Y$ and using the corresponding $O_j$ relation. They can determine its $Y$ outcome with certainty by selecting an $O_{\ell }$ with $\ell \ne j$, measuring $X$ at $\ell$ and $Y$ at all other remote sites. Since $N\ge 3$, both choices are available. Locality and the EPR criterion of reality therefore assign each site definite values $x_j,y_j\in \{+1,-1\}$, independent of which remote choice is made, even though quantum theory does not jointly measure the local $X$ and $Y$.

The certain one-$X$ correlations require those assigned values to obeyMultiplying these scalar equations givessince $N-1$ is even and $y_k^2=1$. Thus the all-$X$ product would necessarily be $+1$. But its quantum value is $-1$, givingThe equations cannot hold even for one assignment of values, so allowing a probability distribution over assignments cannot remove the contradiction. This is the GHZ contradiction for N congruent to 3 modulo 4 for every $M\ge 0$. Multiplying classical assigned values is crucial: one must not commute the incompatible local Pauli operators as though they were ordinary numbers. Their noncommutativity is exactly what permits the quantum correlations to evade the classical product argument.

The EPR criterion of reality says that if a physical quantity can be predicted with certainty without disturbing the system, then it represents an element of physical reality. For separated particles, the EPR locality assumption regards choices of measurements on the other particles as nondisturbing. The perfect correlations below therefore imply predetermined local values for both $X={\sigma }_x$ and $Y={\sigma }_y$, independent of which distant measurements are chosen.

Put $|0⟩=|\uparrow ⟩$ and $|1⟩=|\downarrow ⟩$. The Pauli matrices satisfyFor three particles, each operator with one $X$ and two $Y$ takes $|000⟩$ to $-|111⟩$ and $|111⟩$ to $-|000⟩$, whereas $X\otimes X\otimes X$ interchanges the two strings without a minus sign. Thus the GHZ state in the question has the certain outcomesEach local $X$ or $Y$ value can be predicted from measurements at the other two sites in one of these contexts. If the EPR criterion of reality and locality assign values $x_j,y_j\in \{\pm 1\}$, the first three equalities requireMultiplying these ordinary numbers and using $y_j^2=1$ yields $x_1{x}_2{x}_3=1$, contradicting the certain quantum outcome $-1$. This derives the GHZ theorem explicitly; the multiplication is of hypothetical local values, not of mutually incompatible local observables.

For general $N$, let $O_j=X_j{⨂}_{k\ne j}{Y}_k$, with the tensor factors ordered by their site labels, and let $X_N=X^{\otimes N}$. Directly,For the difference of the two strings to be an eigenstate, these phases must agree, which happens exactly when $N-1$ is even. For odd $N$ the common phase is $(-1{)}^{(N-1)/2}$, and interchanging the strings negates their difference. ConsequentlyFor even $N$, $X_N$ still has eigenvalue $-1$, but every $O_j$ takes the difference state to a phase times the sum state, which is orthogonal to it. Thus it is not an eigenstate of any $O_j$; those operators each have outcomes $\pm 1$ with equal probabilities. Among the stated $N\ge 4$, simultaneous eigenstates therefore occur precisely at $N=5,7,9,\dots$.

For odd $N$, certainty of each $O_j$ again permits remote prediction of both local $X$ and $Y$. Writing ${\lambda }_N=(-1{)}^{(N+1)/2}$, the local hidden-variable theory would require $x_j{\prod }_{k\ne j}{y}_k={\lambda }_N$ for all $j$. Their product ishence ${\prod }_j{x}_j={\lambda }_N$, since $N-1$ is even and $N$ is odd. Quantum theory requires the same product to be $-1$. The contradiction occurs when ${\lambda }_N=+1$, giving the infinite familyFor $N\equiv 1(\mathrm{mod}4)$, these particular certain product constraints are consistent; for example $x_j=-1$, $y_j=+1$ satisfies them. This distinguishes the GHZ contradiction for N congruent to 3 modulo 4 from the larger set of odd $N$ for which simultaneous eigenstates exist.

The EPR criterion of reality proposes that a quantity has an element of physical reality when its value can be predicted with certainty without disturbing the system. It is a sufficient criterion, not a claim that every uncertain prediction is unreal. In the original locality argument, measuring one member of a separated correlated pair allows such a prediction for the other, whose physical condition is assumed unaffected by the remote choice.

Combining the EPR criterion of reality with perfect predictive correlations and locality motivates pre-existing values for the locally selectable observables. The general local hidden-variable theory additionally assumes a complete shared variable $\lambda$ and conditional factorizationThe second condition is measurement independence. The reality criterion alone does not prove this factorization for arbitrary imperfect correlations: it motivates the local completion whose consequences are being tested.

A deterministic local hidden-variable model may be used without loss of generality by putting local random seeds into $\lambda$. For each $\lambda$, write its setting responses as $A,A^{\prime },B,B^{\prime }\in \{-1,1\}$. Integrating with the same setting-independent distribution and using the triangle inequality givesExactly one of $B-B^{\prime }$ and $B+B^{\prime }$ vanishes and the other has magnitude two. Hence the requested CHSH bound is two. No assumption about the spacelike quantum state enters this local-model derivation.

The EPR criterion of reality says that a physical quantity has an element of reality if its value can be predicted with certainty without physically disturbing the system. The proposed criterion distinguishes what the system possesses from what one happens to measure.

A local hidden-variable theory supplements the preparation by a variable $\lambda$, drawn from a distribution $\mu (\lambda )$ independent of the later measurement settings. Its locality assumption is conditional factorization:Alice's local response does not depend on Bob's setting $y$, and Bob's does not depend on Alice's $x$. Correlations can arise from the shared past variable $\lambda$. In a deterministic local hidden-variable model, the response probabilities are point masses at functions $a=A_x(\lambda )$ and $b=B_y(\lambda )$. In particular, all possible local settings have definite values for a fixed $\lambda$, even when only one setting is used in a trial.

The setting-independence assumption is needed for comparing these predetermined values across different experiments. Conditional factorization is stronger than quantum no-signalling: no-signalling constrains observed marginal probabilities, whereas local hidden-variable theory constrains their decomposition at fixed $\lambda$. This distinction is what Bell theorem tests.

The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox begins with correlations enabling certain predictions about one system from alternative measurements on a separated partner. Its EPR criterion of reality promotes certainty without disturbance to a sufficient condition for an element of reality. Together with a locality premise, the alternative position and momentum predictions motivate simultaneously real quantities not represented by one standard quantum state. The intended conclusion is incompleteness, not a mathematical inconsistency of the predictions.^[ref]

Niels Bohr challenges the inference from absence of mechanical disturbance to a context-independent assignment of reality. He accepts that there is no mechanical disturbance of the distant system at the relevant stage. His response invokes the experimental conditions defining the possible predictions: arrangements establishing a spatial reference and arrangements enabling a momentum balance are complementary. On this view, changing the local measurement changes the whole phenomenon to which a definite property attribution belongs. It does not remotely kick the other particle. His diaphragm discussion illustrates why specifying the apparatus and its reference frame is part of the physical claim.^[ref]

A spin singlet state gives a clean reconstruction. Its state isHere $|0_x⟩=|+⟩$ and $|1_x⟩=|-⟩$; the minus sign is an irrelevant overall quantum phase. Measuring the first spin along either axis predicts the other's same-axis outcome with certainty. But the two alternative local quantum measurements define different conditional ensembles. Averaging over the unread outcome leaves the distant reduced density matrix $I/2$ in both cases. The contrast between conditional prediction and the unchanged distant marginal is quantum steering together with quantum no-signalling.

This explains how consistent quantum predictions can coexist with the absence of an operational remote disturbance. It also identifies what a Bohrian rejection of the EPR inference amounts to: certainty in alternative contexts does not license combining the corresponding property attributions into one context-independent account. Merely invoking the Heisenberg uncertainty principle would not suffice, since EPR specifically argued that locality permits the attribution before any incompatible distant measurements are jointly attempted.

The reply is satisfactory as an articulation of quantum complementarity, but not a demonstration that the EPR locality premise and completeness are jointly sustainable. The critic can distinguish a change in our permissible predictions from a change in the distant physical condition. If the latter really is unchanged, why must the alternative predictions not reveal pre-existing properties? Bohr's contextual standard rejects that demand rather than deriving its impossibility from neutral premises. Later Bell inequalities sharpen the issue: quantum no-signalling does not imply Bell local causality. A satisfactory contemporary account should acknowledge this difference, rather than crediting Bohr with a proof of Bell-local completeness or interpreting his reply as faster-than-light mechanical influence.