隐变量理论（英语：hidden variable theory）又称隐变数理论，是由物理学家质疑量子力学完备性而提出的替代理论。历史上随著量子力学的发展，而提出了海森堡不确定原理等限制，一别于古典物理，诸如位置与动量等无法同时精准测出其值；此外关于粒子位置等特性由机率密度描述所取代。一些物理学家例如爱因斯坦，认为量子力学并未完整地描述物理系统的状态，亦即质疑量子力学是不完备的。因此量子力学的背后应该隐藏了一个尚未发现的理论，可以完整解释物理系统所有可观测量的演化行为，而避免掉任何不确定性或随机性。
历史上爱因斯坦是隐变量理论的主要倡导者，出于对标准量子力学诠释的机率性解释的不满。[1]他曾说：“我相信上帝不掷骰子。”[2]
1935年，爱因斯坦与波多尔斯基、罗森共同提出的EPR悖论（以姓氏字首为缩写）试图对哥本哈根诠释做出挑战，论文中指出“实在性元素”（即隐变量）应该加入量子力学中，俾使在量子缠结现象中不会出现鬼魅般的超距作用。在提出后，这样的争辩仍停留在物理哲学的范畴，直到约翰·贝尔提出贝尔定理方得区分两者差异。透过实验证实：一定类型的局域隐变量理论与实验结果不相符，包括EPR佯谬中提出的诠释版本。非局域（广域）的隐变量理论最知名者为德布罗意-玻姆理论。
The Born-Einstein letters: correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max and Hedwig Born from 1916-1955, with commentaries by Max Born. Macmillan. 1971: 158.
- Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?" Physical Review 47, 777–780 (1935).
- John Stewart Bell, "On the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox", Physics 1, (1964) 195–200. Reprinted in Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- D. Bohm and B. J. Hiley, The Undivided Universe, Routledge, 1993
- Wolfgang Pauli, letter to M. Fierz dated 10 August 1954, reprinted and translated in K. V. Laurikainen, Beyond the Atom: The Philosophical Thought of Wolfgang Pauli, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988, p. 226.
- Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations, translated by A. J. Pomerans, Harper & Row, New York, 1971, pp. 63–64.
- Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu and Franck Laloë, Mecanique quantique (see also Quantum Mechanics translated from the French by Susan Hemley, Nicole Ostrowsky, and Dan Ostrowsky; John Wiley & Sons 1982) Hermann, Paris, France. 1977.
- P. S. Hanle, Indeterminacy before Heisenberg: The Case of Franz Exner and Erwin Schrödinger, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 10, 225 (1979).
- Asher Peres and Wojciech Zurek, "Is quantum theory universally valid?" American Journal of Physics 50, 807 (1982).
- Wojciech Zurek "Environment-induced superselection rules" Physical Review D 26 1862. 1982.
- Max Jammer, "The EPR Problem in Its Historical Development", in Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics: 50 years of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen Gedankenexperiment, edited by P. Lahti and P. Mittelstaedt (World Scientific, Singapore, 1985), pp. 129–149.
- Arthur Fine, The Shaky Game: Einstein Realism and the Quantum Theory, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986.
- Thomas Kuhn. Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894–1912 Chicago University Press. 1987.
- Asher Peres, Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1993.
- Carlton M. Caves and Christopher A. Fuchs, "Quantum Information: How Much Information in a State Vector?", in The Dilemma of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen – 60 Years Later, edited by A. Mann and M. Revzen, Ann. Israel Physical Society 12, 226–257 (1996).
- Carlo Rovelli. "Relational quantum mechanics" International Journal of Theoretical Physics 35 1637–1678. 1996.
- Roland Omnès, Understanding Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press, 1999.
- Roman Jackiw and Daniel Kleppner, "One Hundred Years of Quantum Physics", Science, Vol. 289 Issue 5481, p. 893, August 2000.
- Orly Alter and Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Quantum Measurement of a Single System (PDF). Wiley-Interscience. 2001. 136 pp. ISBN 9780471283089. doi:10.1002/9783527617128. Slides. （原始内容 (PDF)存档于2014-02-03）.
- Erich Joos, et al., Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory, 2nd ed., Berlin, Springer, 2003.
- Wojciech Zurek (2003). "Decoherence and the transition from quantum to classical — Revisited", (An updated version of Physics Today, 44:36–44 (1991) article)
- Wojciech Zurek, "Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical" in Reviews of Modern Physics, vol.75, (715).
- Asher Peres and Daniel Terno, "Quantum Information and Relativity Theory", Reviews of Modern Physics 76 (2004) 93.
- Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, Alfred Knopf 2004.
- Maximilian Schlosshauer, "Decoherence, the Measurement Problem, and Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics", in Reviews of Modern Physics, vol.76, pages 1267–1305, 2005.
- Federico Laudisa and Carlo Rovelli. "Relational Quantum Mechanics" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2005 Edition).
- Marco Genovese, "Research on hidden variable theories: a review of recent progresses", in Physics Reports, vol.413, 2005.
