We introduce a general condition sufficient for the validity of the original Bell inequality (1964) in a local hidden variable (LHV) frame. This condition can be checked experimentally and incorporates only as a particular case the assumption on perfect correlations or anticorrelations usually argued for this inequality in the literature. Specifying this general condition for a quantum bipartite case, we introduce the whole class of bipartite quantum states, separable and nonseparable, that (i) admit an LHV description under any bipartite measurements with two settings per site; (ii) do not necessarily exhibit perfect correlations and may even have a negative correlation function if the same quantum observable is measured at both sites but (iii) satisfy the "perfect correlation" version of the original Bell inequality for any three bounded quantum observables A, A'=B, B' at sites "A" and "B", respectively. Analysing the validity of this general LHV condition under classical and quantum correlation experiments with the same physical context, we stress that, unlike the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality, the original Bell inequality distinguishes between classicality and quantum separability.
Classical and quantum world views differ in peculiar ways. Understanding decisive quantum features -- for which no classical explanation exist -- and their interrelations is of foundational interest. Moreover, recognizing non-classical features carries practical significance in information processing tasks as it offers insights as to why quantum protocols work better than their classical counterparts. We focus here on two celebrated notions of non-classicality viz., negativity of P phase-space representation and entanglement in symmetric multiqubit systems. We prove that they imply each other.
A sufficient condition for a quantum state of a system of spin-1/2 particles (spin-1/2s) to admit a local hidden variable (LHV) description i.e. to be classical is the separability of the density matrix characterizing its state, but not all classical states are separable. This leads one to infer that separability and classicality are two different concepts. These concepts are examined here in the framework of a criterion for identifying classicality of a system of spin-1/2s based on the concept of joint quasiprobability (JQP) for the eigevalues of spin components. The said criterion identifies…
Starting from arbitrary sets of quantum states and measurements, referred to as the prepare-and-measure scenario, an operationally noncontextual ontological model of the quantum statistics associated with the prepare-and-measure scenario is constructed. The operationally noncontextual ontological model coincides with standard Spekkens noncontextual ontological models for tomographically complete scenarios, while covering the non-tomographically complete case with a new notion of a reduced space, which we motivate following the guiding principles of noncontextuality. A mathematical criterion, c…
We discuss some mathematical aspects of photon antibunching and sub-Poisson photon statistics. It is known that Bell's inequalities for entangled states can be reduced to the Cauchy-Bunyakovsky inequalities. In this note some rigorous results on impossibility of classical hidden variables representations of certain quantum correlation functions are proved which are also based on the Cauchy-Bunyakovsky inequalities. The difference K between the variance and the mean as a measure of non-classicality of a state is discussed. For the classical case K is nonnegative while for the n-particle state i…
Entropic Bell inequalities witness contextual probability distributions on sets of jointly measurable observables. We find that their violation does not entail a violation of the correlative Bell inequality for certain parameter values. This anomaly between the entropic and correlative measures of contextuality helps to precisely qualify the type of non-classical resource. We determine its numerical bounds inviting their experimental verification. Among the permutations of observables that keep this anomaly in place, we identify the 'exotic' type that gives rise to non-classical resources unde…
The statement of E.R. Loubenets, Phys. Rev. A 69, 042102 (2004), that separable states can violate classical probabilistic constraints is based on a misleading definition of classicality, which is much narrower than Bell's concept of local hidden variables. In a Bell type setting the notion of classicality used by Loubenets corresponds to the assumption of perfect correlations if the same observable is measured on both sides. While it is obvious that most separable states do not satisfy this assumption, this does not constitute "non-classical" behaviour in any usual sense of the word.
In contrast to the wide-spread opinion that any separable quantum state satisfies every classical probabilistic constraint, we present a simple example where a separable quantum state does not satisfy the original Bell inequality although the latter inequality, in its perfect correlation form, is valid for all joint classical measurements. In a very general setting, we discuss inequalities for joint experiments upon a bipartite quantum system in a separable state. We derive quantum analogues of the original Bell inequality and specify the conditions sufficient for a separable state to satisfy …
A necessary and sufficient condition for characterization and quantification of entanglement of any bipartite Gaussian state belonging to a special symmetry class is given in terms of classicality measures of one-party states. For Gaussian states whose local covariance matrices have equal determinants it is shown that separability of a two-party state and classicality of one party state are completely equivalent to each other under a nonlocal operation, allowing entanglement features to be understood in terms of any available classicality measure.
Classical and quantum physics impose different constraints on the joint probability distributions of observed variables in a causal structure. These differences mean that certain correlations can be certified as non-classical, which has both foundational and practical importance. Rather than working with the probability distribution itself, it can instead be convenient to work with the entropies of the observed variables. In the Bell causal structure with two inputs and outputs per party, a technique that uses entropic inequalities is known that can always identify non-classical correlations. …
States that strongly violate Bell's inequalities are required in many quantum informational protocols as, for example, in cryptography, secret sharing and the reduction of communication complexity. We investigate families of such states with a numerical method which allows to reveal non-classicality even without direct knowledge of Bell's inequalities for the given problem. An extensive set of numerical results is presented and discussed.
A new interpretation offers a consistent conceptual basis for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The violation of Bell's inequality is explained by maintaining realism, inductive inference and Einstein separability.
We have studied the emergence of classical states in the perturbative interaction model. The states which interact with many other degrees of freedom, such as the center of mass of a macro-object, play important role. Although the random phase mechanism is effective as same as Zurek's strong correlation model, there are enormous states, each of which independently developes due to the orthogonality of the environmental states. In these privileged states, the subsystem picture with the separability is stable.
Using the Hilbert-Schmidt (HS) decomposition we suggest new possible choices of Bell operators and entanglement witnesses (EW ) for n (>2) qubits systems for (full/bi) separability. The latter give upper bounds for (full/bi) separability. Also using the HS decomposition, we find explicitly (full/bi) separable forms for some qubits states which give lower bounds for (full/bi) separability. When the lower bounds and upper bounds coincide it means that the EW is optimal. In the case of full separability, the positive transpose method can sometimes give optimal results. As concrete examples, we gi…
The discrepancy between maximally entangled states and maximally non-classical quantum correlations is well-known but still not well understood. We aim to investigate the relation between quantum correlations and entanglement in a family Bell inequalities with $N$-settings and $d$ outcomes. Using analytical as well as numerical techniques, we derive both maximal quantum violations and violations obtained from maximally entangled states. Furthermore, we study the most non-classical quantum states in terms of their entanglement entropy for large values of $d$ and many measurement settings. Inter…
A decomposition form is introduced in this report to establish a criterion for the bi-partite separability of Bell diagonal states. A such criterion takes a quadratic form of the coefficients of a given Bell diagonal states and can be derived via a simple algorithmic calculation of its invariants. In addition, the criterion can be extended to a quantum system of higher dimension.
This paper addresses arguments that "separability" is an assumption of Bell's theorem, and that abandoning this assumption in our interpretation of quantum mechanics (a position sometimes referred to as "holism") will allow us to restore a satisfying locality principle. Separability here means that all events associated to the union of some set of disjoint regions are combinations of events associated to each region taken separately. In this article, it is shown that: (a) localised events can be consistently defined without implying separability; (b) the definition of Bell's locality condition…
It is stated by C. Simon, quant-ph/0410032, that the definition of "classicality" used in quant-ph/0310116 is "much narrower than Bell's concept of local hidden variables" and that, in the separable quantum case, the validity of the perfect correlation form of the original Bell inequality is necessarily linked with "the assumption of perfect correlations if the same (quantum) observable is measured on both sides". Here, I prove that these and other statements in quant-ph/0410032 are misleading.
We analyze and compare the mathematical formulations of the criterion for separability for bipartite density matrices and the Bell inequalities. We show that a violation of a Bell inequality can formally be expressed as a witness for entanglement. We also show how the criterion for separability and a description of the state by a local hidden variable theory, become equivalent when we restrict the set of local hidden variable theories to the domain of quantum mechanics. This analysis sheds light on the essential difference between the two criteria and may help us in understanding whether there…
We analyze the structure of correlations among more than two quantum systems. We introduce a classification of correlations based on the concept of non-separability, which is different {\em a priori} from the concept of entanglement. Generalizing a result of Svetlichny [Phys. Rev. D {\bf 35} (1987) 3066] on 3-particle correlations, we find an inequality for $n$-particle correlations that holds under the most general separability condition and that is violated by some quantum-mechanical states.
In analogy with Bell's inequality for two-qubit quantum states we propose an inequality criterion for the non-separability of the spin-orbit degrees of freedom of a classical laser beam. A definition of separable and non-separable spin-orbit modes is used in consonance with the one presented in Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 160401 (2007). As the usual Bell's inequality can be violated for entangled two-qubit quantum states, we show both theoretically and experimentally that the proposed spin-orbit inequality criterion can be violated for non-separable modes. A discussion on the classical-quantum transi…
We derive N-particle Bell-type inequalities under the assumption of partial separability, i.e. that the N-particle system is composed of subsystems which may be correlated in any way (e.g. entangled) but which are uncorrelated with respect to each other. These inequalities provide, upon violation, experimentally accessible sufficient conditions for full N-particle entanglement, i.e. for N-particle entanglement that cannot be reduced to mixtures of states in which a smaller number of particles are entangled. The inequalities are shown to be maximally violated by the N-particle Greenberger-Horne…
A minimal example of quantum non-classicality without freedom of choice
Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas（坎皮纳斯州立大学格莱巴·瓦塔金物理研究所）；International Institute of Physics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte（北里奥格兰德联邦大学国际物理研究所）；School of Science and Technology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte（北里奥格兰德联邦大学理学院）
We show that any multi-qudit entanglement witness leads to a non-separability indicator for quantum optical fields, which involves intensity correlations. We get, e.g., necessary and sufficient conditions for intensity or intensity-rate correlations to reveal polarization entanglement. We also derive separability conditions for experiments involving multiport interferometers, now feasible with integrated optics. We show advantages of using intensity rates rather than intensities, e.g., a mapping of Bell inequalities to ones for optical fields. The results have implication for studies of non-cl…
The notion of `weak classical limit' for coupled N-level quantum systems as N -> infinity is introduced to understand the precise sense in which one attains classicality. There exist proofs that a system becomes classical at large N. On the other hand, it is known that non-locality and entanglement, the two hallmarks of non-classicality, thrive even as N -> infinity. We reconcile these results in this paper by showing that so called classicality is not so much an inherent property of the system, as it is a consequence of limited experimental resources. Our focus is largely on non-locality, for…
Quantum mechanics provides a statistical description about nature, and thus would be incomplete if its statistical predictions could not be accounted for some realistic models with hidden variables. There are, however, two powerful theorems against the hidden-variable theories showing that certain quantum features cannot be reproduced based on two rationale premises of classicality, the Bell theorem, and noncontextuality, due to Bell, Kochen and Specker (BKS) . Tests of the Bell inequality and the BKS theorem are both of fundamental interests and of great significance . The Bell theorem has al…
We analyze the assumptions that are made in the proofs of Bell-type inequalities for the results of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen type of experiments. We find that the introduction of time-like random variables permits the construction of a broader mathematical model which accounts for all correlations of variables that are contained in the time dependent parameter set of the backward light cone. It also permits to obtain the quantum result for the spin pair correlation, a result that contradicts Bell's inequality. Two key features of our mathematical model are (i) the introduction of time operators…
Separability and entanglement for n-qubits systems are quantified by using Hilbert-Schmidt (HS) decompositions in which the density matrices are decomposed into various terms representing certain one qubit, two-qubits,and larger qubits measurements. The present method is more general than previous methods for bipartite systems as it can be used for quantification of entanglement for large n-qubits systems.We demonstrate the use of such method by analyzing three qubits GHZ states, and three qubits general Bell states produced by a certain multiplications of Braid operators, operating on the com…
We derive tight quadratic inequalities for all kinds of hybrid separable-inseparable $n$-particle density operators on an arbitrary dimensional space. This methodology enables us to truly derive a tight quadratic inequality as tests for full $n$-partite entanglement in various Bell-type correlation experiments on the systems that may not be identified as a collection of qubits, e.g., those involving photons measured by incomplete detectors. It is also proved that when the two measured observables are assumed to precisely anti-commute, a stronger quadratic inequality can be used as a witness of…
With a probability of success of $95 \%$ we solve the separability problem for Bell diagonal qutrit states with positive partial transposition (PPT). The separability problem, i.e. distinguishing separable and entangled states, generally lacks an efficient solution due to the existence of bound entangled states. In contrast to free entangled states that can be used for entanglement distillation via local operations and classical communication, these states cannot be detected by the Peres-Horodecki criterion or PPT criterion. We analyze a large family of bipartite qutrit states that can be sepa…
Quantum mechanics provides a statistical description about nature, and thus would be incomplete if its statistical predictions could not be accounted for by some realistic models with hidden variables. There are, however, two powerful theorems against the hidden-variable theories showing that certain quantum features cannot be reproduced based on two rationale premises of locality, Bell's theorem, and noncontextuality, due to Bell, Kochen and Specker (BKS). Noncontextuality is independent of nonlocality, and the contextuality manifests itself even in a single object. Here we report an experime…
I derive separability inequalities for Bell correlations of observables in arbitrary pure or mixed $N$ Qudit states in $D^N$-dimensional state space. I find states (a continuum of states if $D>3$) including maximally entangled states which violate these inequalities by a factor $2^{N-1}$ ; local reality Bell inequalities are much weaker, their maximum violation being by a factor $2^{(N-1)/2}$. The separability inequalities allow tests of entanglement of unknown states using only the measured correlations .
Entanglement of quantum states is absolutely essential for modern quantum sciences and technologies. It is natural to extend the notion of entanglement to quantum observables dual to quantum states. For quantum states, various separability criteria have been proposed to determine whether a given state is entangled. In this Letter, we propose a separability criterion for specific quantum effects (binary observables) that can be regarded as a dual version of the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) inequality for quantum states. The violation of the dual version of the Bell-CHSH inequalit…
In the last few years one realized that if the state of a bipartite system can be written as $\sum_{i,j}p_{ij}|a_{i}>< a_{i}|\otimes |b_{j}> < b_{j}|$, where $\{|a_{i}> \}$ and $\{|b_{j}> \}$ form orthonormal basis for the subsystems and $\{p_{ij}\}$ is a probability distribution, then it possesses at most classical correlations. In this article we introduce a nonlinear witness providing a sufficient condition for classicality of correlations (absence of quantum discord) in a broad class of two-qubit systems. Such witness turns out to be necessary and sufficient condition in the case of Bell-d…
We provide a simple class of 2-qudit states for which one is able to formulate necessary and sufficient conditions for separability. As a byproduct we generalize well known construction provided by Horodecki et al. for d=3. It is hoped that these states with known separability/entanglement properties may be used to test various notions in entanglement theory.
For an N-partite quantum system we show that separability implies inequalities on Bell correlations which are stronger than the local reality inequalities by a factor 2^{(N-1)/2}.
The use of the so-called entropic inequalities is revisited in the light of new quantum correlation measures, specially nonlocality. We introduce the concept of {\it classicality} as the non-violation of these classical inequalities by quantum states of several multiqubit systems and compare it with the non-violation of Bell inequalities, that is, {\it locality}. We explore --numerically and analytically-- the relationship between several other quantum measures and discover the deep connection existing between them. The results are surprising due to the fact that these measures are very differ…
The connection between coarse-graining of measurement and emergence of classicality has been investigated for some time, if not well understood. Recently in (PRL $\textbf{112}$, 010402, (2014)) it was pointed out that coarse-graining measurements can lead to non-violation of Bell-type inequalities by a state which would violate it under sharp measurements. We study here the effects of coarse-grained measurements on bipartite cat states. We show that while it is true that coarse-graining does indeed lead to non-violation of a Bell-type inequality, this is not reflected at the state level. Under…
Quantum measurements are crucial for quantum technologies and give rise to some of the most classically counter-intuitive quantum phenomena. As such, the ability to certify the presence of genuinely non-classical joint measurements in a device-independent fashion is vital. However, previous work has either been non-device-independent, or has relied on post-selection---the ability to discard all runs of an experiment in which a specific event did not occur. In the case of entanglement, the post-selection approach applies an entangled measurement to independent states and post-selects the outcom…
We investigate the entanglement of a quantum field in the expanding universe. By introducing a bipartite system using a coarse-grained scalar field, we apply the separability criterion based on the partial transpose operation and numerically calculate the bipartite entanglement between separate spatial regions. We find that the initial entangled state becomes separable or dis-entangled after the spatial separation of two points exceed the Hubble horizon. This provides the necessary condition for the appearance of classicality of the quantum fluctuation. We also investigate the condition of cla…
A new interpretation offers a consistent conceptual basis for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox is solved and the violation of Bell's inequality is explained by maintaining realism, inductive inference and Einstein separability.
Bounds, expressed in terms of d and N, on full Bell locality of a quantum state for $N\geq 3$ nonlocally entangled qudits (of a dimension $d\geq 2$) mixed with white noise are known, to our knowledge, only within full separability of this noisy N-qudit state. For the maximal violation of general Bell inequalities by an N-partite quantum state, we specify the analytical upper bound expressed in terms of dilation characteristics of this state, and this allows us to find new general bounds in $d, N$, valid for all $d\geq 2$ and all $N\geq 3$, on full Bell locality under generalized quantum measur…
The relations between Bell's inequality and quantum probability trees are explained against the background offered by the concept of a quantum probability tree built in others works. It is shown that f we use a concept of probability tree it will not be necessary we set aside the principle of separability and principle of locality.
A quantum system consisting of two subsystems is separable if its density matrix can be written as $ρ=\sum_A w_A\,ρ_A'\otimesρ_A''$, where $ρ_A'$ and $ρ_A''$ are density matrices for the two subsytems. In this Letter, it is shown that a necessary condition for separability is that a matrix, obtained by partial transposition of $ρ$, has only non-negative eigenvalues. This criterion is stronger than Bell's inequality.
We study the mathematical structures and relations among some quantities in the theory of quantum entanglement, such as separability, weak Schmidt decompositions, Hadamard matrices etc.. We provide an operational method to identify the Schmidt-correlated states by using weak Schmidt decomposition. We show that a mixed state is Schmidt-correlated if and only if its spectral decomposition consists of a set of pure eigenstates which can be simultaneously diagonalized in weak Schmidt decomposition, i.e. allowing for complex-valued diagonal entries. For such states, the separability is reduced to t…
Entanglement as a vital resource for information processing can be described by special properties of the quantum state. Using the well-known Weyl basis we propose a new Bloch decomposition of the quantum state and study its separability problem. This decomposition enables us to find an alternative characterization of the separability based on the correlation matrix. We shaw that the criterion is effective in detecting entanglement for the isotropic states, Bell-diagonal states and some PPT entangled states. We also use the Weyl operators to construct an detecting operator for quantum teleport…
The separability problem is one of the basic and emergent problems in the present and future quantum information processing. The latter focuses on information and computing based on quantum mechanics and uses quantum bits as its basic information units. In this paper, we present an overview of the progress in the separability problem in bipartite systems, more specifically in two quantum bits systems from the criterion based on the inequalities of Bell in $1964$ to the recent criteria of separability in 2018.
This text is an introduction to an operational outlook on Bell inequalities, which has been very fruitful in the past few years. It has lead to the recognition that Bell tests have their own place in applied quantum technologies, because they quantify non-classicality in a device-independent way, that is, without any need to describe the degrees of freedom under study and the measurements that are performed. At the more fundamental level, the same device-independent outlook has allowed the falsification of several other alternative models that could hope to reproduce the observed statistics wh…
Federal University of Paraná（联邦巴拉那大学）；University of Geneva（日内瓦大学）；Lund University（隆德大学）；Constructor University（Constructor 大学）；Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）；KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University（皇家理工学院和斯德哥尔摩大学）
Generation and read-out of many-body Bell correlations with a probe qubit
Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech（奇力马扎罗量子技术）；ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（ICFO-光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学物理学院）
Given the multitude of applications of vector vortex beams there is a need for robust tools to measure them. Here we exploit the non-separability of such beams, akin to entanglement of quantum states, to apply tools traditionally associated with quantum measurements to these classical fields. We apply three measures of non-separability: a Bell inequality, a concurrence, and an entanglement entropy to define the "vectorness" of such beams. In addition to providing novel tools for the analysis of vector beams, we also introduce the concept of classical entanglement to explain why these tools are…
