Explicit construction of local observable algebras in quasi-Hermitian quantum theories is derived in both the tensor product model of locality and in models of free fermions. The latter construction is applied to several cases of a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric toy model of particle-conserving free fermions on a 1-dimensional lattice, with nearest neighbour interactions and open boundary conditions. Despite the locality of the Hamiltonian, local observables do not exist in generic collections of sites in the lattice. The collections of sites which do contain nontrivial observables strongly depends on the complex potential.
To effectively realize a $\cal PT$-symmetric system, one can dilate a $\cal PT$-symmetric Hamiltonian to some global Hermitian one and simulate its evolution in the dilated Hermitian system. However, with only a global Hermitian Hamiltonian, how do we know whether it is a dilation and is useful for simulation? To answer this question, we consider the problem of how to extract the internal nonlocality in the Hermitian dilation. We unveil that the internal nonlocality brings nontrivial correlations between the subsystems. By evaluating the correlations with local measurements in three different …
According to von Neumann, the global Hamiltonian of whole universe must be Hermitian in order to keep the eigenvalues real and to construct a self-consistent quantum theory. In addition to the open system approach by introducing environmental degrees of freedom to a small system, a global Hermitian Hamiltonian can also be generated through the dilation from a small Hilbert space. For example, a local non-Hermitian $\cal PT$-symmetric system can be simulated with a global Hermitian one by the Naimark dilation. When shared by Alice and Bob, the internal nonlocality in such dilated Hermitian syst…
There have been theoretical and experimental studies on quantum nonlocality for continuous variables, based on dichotomic observables. In particular, we are interested in two cases of dichotomic observables for the light field of continuous variables: One case is even and odd numbers of photons and the other case is no photon and presence of photons. We analyze various observables to give the maximum violation of Bell's inequalities for continuous-variable states. We discuss an observable which gives the violation of Bell's inequality for any entangled pure continuous variable state. However, …
Recently the authors in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 090401 (2020)] considered the following scenario: Alice and Bob each have half of a pair of entangled qubit state. Bob measures his half and then passes his part to a second Bob who measures again and so on. The goal is to maximize the number of Bobs that can have an expected violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality with the single Alice. By taking the maximally entangled pure two-qubit state as an example, it has been constructively proved that arbitrarily many independent Bobs can share the nonlocality with the single Alice.…
For the purpose of the nonlocality test, we propose a general correlation observable of two parties by utilizing local $d$-outcome measurements with SU($d$) transformations and classical communications. Generic symmetries of the SU($d$) transformations and correlation observables are found for the test of nonlocality. It is shown that these symmetries dramatically reduce the number of numerical variables, which is important for numerical analysis of nonlocality. A linear combination of the correlation observables, which is reduced to the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell's inequality for …
In this article, we investigate the dynamics of a bipartite system under the action of a local non-Hermitian system. We study the quantum correlation of the bipartite system quantified by the entanglement, measurement-induced nonlocality (MIN) based on Hilbert-Schmidt norm, trace distance, and Bell inequality. We find that the quantum correlations of the system depend on the initial conditions and system parameters. We observe that the states with nonzero quantum correlation obey the Bell inequality even in the absence of entanglement. Moreover, the Bell inequality completely fails to manifest…
In quantum mechanics, nonlocality (a violation of a Bell inequality) is intimately linked to complementarity, by which we mean that consistently assigning values to different observables at the same time is not possible. Nonlocality can only occur when some of the relevant observables do not commute, and this noncommutativity makes the observables complementary. Beyond quantum mechanics, the concept of complementarity can be formalized in several distinct ways. Here we describe some of these possible formalizations and ask how they relate to nonlocality. We partially answer this question by de…
Complementarity principle is one of the central concepts in quantum mechanics which restricts joint measurement for certain observables. Of course, later development shows that joint measurement could be possible for such observables with the introduction of a certain degree of unsharpness or fuzziness in the measurement. In this paper, we show that the optimal degree of unsharpness, which guarantees the joint measurement of all possible pairs of dichotomic observables, determines the degree of nonlocality in quantum mechanics as well as in more general no-signaling theories.
We show that rejection of local realism in quantum mechanics can be tested by Bell-type inequalities for two observers and low-order moments of continuous and unbounded observables. We prove that one requires three observables for each observer for a maximally entangled state and two observables for a non-maximally entangled state and write down appropriate inequalities and show violation by quantum examples. Finding an example for quadratures or position and momentum is left as an open problem.
Complementarity and nonlocality are two characteristic traits of quantum physics that distinguishes it from classical physics. In this paper, we prove that the complementarity between global and local observables in Bell's experiment sets the decisive foundation for the nonlocality of composite systems.
This paper is aimed to dissociate nonlocality from quantum theory. We demonstrate that the tests on violation of the Bell type inequalities are simply statistical tests of local incompatibility of observables. In fact, these are tests on violation of {\it the Bohr complementarity principle.} Thus, the attempts to couple experimental violations of the Bell type inequalities with "quantum nonlocality" is really misleading. These violations are explained in the quantum theory as exhibitions of incompatibility of observables for a single quantum system, e.g., the spin projections for a single elec…
It is proved in the frame of standard quantum mechanics that selection of different ensembles emerging from measurements of an observable leads to identification of corresponding reductions of the initial, premeasured state. This solves the problem of ``nonlocality`` observed in EPR-Bohm-type experiments.
The origin of nonlocality in quantum mechanics (QM) is analyzed from the viewpoint of our new model of a one-dimensional (1D) completed scattering. Our study of quantum nonlocality complements those carried out by Volovich and Khrennikov. They pointed to an unphysical character of nonlocality in Bell's theorem whose context does not contain the very structure of the space-time. However, there is another reason leading to nonlocality in QM. The existing model of a 1D completed scattering evidences that QM, as it stands, even with a proper space-time context, contradicts special relativity. By o…
This paper illustrates a direct connection between quantum steering and non-trivial preparation contextuality. In two party-two measurement per party-two outcomes per measurement $(2-2-2)$ Bell scenario, any argument of Bell nonlocality is a proof of trivial preparation contextuality; however, the converse may not hold. If one of the parties (say, Alice) performs the measurements of more than two dichotomic observables, then it is possible to find a set of non-trivial functional relations between Alice's observables. We argue that the existence of a suitable set of such non-trivial relations b…
We present an exhaustive numerical analysis of violations of local realism by families of multipartite quantum states. As an indicator of nonclassicality we employ the probability of violation for randomly sampled observables. Surprisingly, it rapidly increases with the number of parties or settings and even for relatively small values local realism is violated for almost all observables. We have observed this effect to be typical in the sense that it emerged for all investigated states including some with randomly drawn coefficients. We also present the probability of violation as a witness o…
We develop criteria to detect three classes of nonlocality that have been shown by Wiseman et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 140402 (2007)] to be nonequivalent: entanglement, EPR steering, and the failure of local hidden-variable theories. We use the approach of Cavalcanti et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 210405 (2007)] for continuous variables to develop the nonlocality criteria for arbitrary spin observables defined on a discrete Hilbert space. The criteria thus apply to multisite qudits, i.e., systems of fixed dimension d, and take the form of inequalities. We find that the spin moment inequalities …
Observables are believed that they must be Hermitian in quantum theory. Based on the obviously physical fact that only eigenstates of observable and its corresponding probabilities, i.e., spectrum distribution of observable are actually observed, we argue that observables need not necessarily to be Hermitian. More generally, observables should be reformulated as normal operators including Hermitian operators as a subclass. This reformulation is consistent with the quantum theory currently used and does not change any physical results. The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality is taken a…
An array of N subsequent Laguerre polynomials is interpreted as an eigenvector of a non-Hermitian tridiagonal Hamiltonian $H$ with real spectrum or, better said, of an exactly solvable N-site-lattice cryptohermitian Hamiltonian whose spectrum is known as equal to the set of zeros of the N-th Laguerre polynomial. The two key problems (viz., the one of the ambiguity and the one of the closed-form construction of all of the eligible inner products which make $H$ Hermitian in the respective {\em ad hoc} Hilbert spaces) are discussed. Then, for illustration, the first four simplest, $k-$parametric …
Hardy's nonlocality argument, which establishes incompatibility of quantum theory with local-realism, can also be used to reveal the time-nonlocal feature of quantum states. For spin-1/2 systems, the maximum probability of success of this argument is known to be 25%. We show that this maximum remains 25% for all finite-dimensional quantum systems with suitably chosen observables. This enables a test of the quantum properties of macroscopic systems in analogy to the method of Leggett and Garg.
Generic forms of the entangled states of two spin-1 (and spin-3/2) particles, along with the set of appropriate spin observables that together exhibit maximum nonlocality under the Hardy's nonlocality test are given; the maximum nonlocality is shown to be 0.09017. It is conjectured that this result holds good for a system of two spin-$j$ particles for all values of $j$. It is also shown that no maximally entangled state of two spin-$j$ particles responds to the Hardy's nonlocality test.
We show that all $n$-qubit entangled states, with the exception of tensor products of single-qubit and bipartite maximally-entangled states, admit Hardy-type proofs of non-locality without inequalities or probabilities. More precisely, we show that for all such states, there are local, one-qubit observables such that the resulting probability tables are logically contextual in the sense of Abramsky and Brandenburger, this being the general form of the Hardy-type property. Moreover, our proof is constructive: given a state, we show how to produce the witnessing local observables. In fact, we gi…
A simple model allows us to study the nonclassical behavior of slowly moving atoms interacting with a quantized field. Atom and field become entangled and their joint state can be identified as a mesoscopic "Schroedinger-cat". By introducing appropriate observables for atom and field and by analyzing correlations between them based on a Bell-type inequality we can show the corresponding nonclassical behavior.
Here we focus on the measurement induced nonlocality and present a redefinition in terms of the skew information subject to a broken observable. It is shown that the obtained quantity possesses an obvious operational meaning, can tackle the noncontractivity of the measurement induced nonlocality and has analytic expressions for many quantum states. Most importantly, an inverse approximate joint diagonalization algorithm, due to its simplicity, high efficiency, stability, and state independence, is presented to provide almost analytic expressions for any quantum state, which can also shed light…
In this paper the failure of Hardy's nonlocality proof for the class of maximally entangled states is considered. A detailed analysis shows that the incompatibility of the Hardy equations for this class of states physically originates from the fact that the existence of quantum perfect correlations for the three pairs of two-valued observables (D_11,D_21), (D_11,D_22) and (D_12,D_21) [in the sense of having with certainty equal (different) readings for a joint measurement of any one of the pairs (D_11,D_21), (D_11,D_22), and (D_12,D_21)], necessarily entails perfect correlation for the pair of…
It has been argued that it is incompatible to maintain unitary time-evolution for time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonians when the metric operator is explicitly time-dependent. We demonstrate here that the time-dependent Dyson equation and the time-dependent quasi-Hermiticity relation can be solved consistently in such a scenario for a time-dependent Dyson map and time-dependent metric operator, respectively. These solutions are obtained at the cost of rendering the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian to be a non-observable operator as it ceases to be quasi-Hermitian when the metric becomes time-depen…
We discuss proofs of nonlocality based on a generalization by Erwin Schrödinger of the argument of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen. These proofs do not appeal in any way to Bell's inequalities. Indeed, one striking feature of the proofs is that they can be used to establish nonlocality solely on the basis of suitably robust perfect correlations. First we explain that Schrödinger's argument shows that locality and the perfect correlations between measurements of observables on spatially separated systems implies the existence of a non-contextual value-map for quantum observables; non-contextual me…
We argue that quantum nonlocality of entangled states is not an actual phenomenon. It appears in quantum mechanics as a consequence of the inconsistency of its superposition principle with the corpuscular properties of a quantum particle. In the existing form, this principle does not distinguish between macroscopically distinct states of a particle and their superpositions: it implies introducing observables for a particle, even if it is in an entangled state. However, a particle cannot take part simultaneously in two or more alternative macroscopically distinct sub-processes. Thus, calculatin…
It is shown that for each mixed state there exists a Schmidt (super state vector) decomposition in terms of Hermitian operators. Its utilization for finding all twins is illustrated in full detail in the case of the two spin-one-half-particle states with maximally disordered subsystems (mixtures of Bell states).
The metric associated with a quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonian and its physical implications are scrutinised. Consequences of the non-uniqueness such as the question of the probability interpretation and the possible and forbidden choices of additional observables are investigated and exemplified by specific illustrative examples. In particular it is argued that the improper identification of observables lies at the origin of the claimed violation of the brachistchrone transition time between orthogonal states. The need for further physical input to remove ambiguities is pointed out.
We propose an experiment demonstrating the nonlocality of a quantum singlet-like state generated from a single photon incident on a beam splitter. Each of the two spatially separated apparatuses in the setup performs a strongly unbalanced homodyning, employing a single photon counting detector. We show that the correlation functions violating the Bell inequalities in the proposed experiment are given by the joint two-mode Q-function and the Wigner function of the optical singlet-like state. This establishes a direct relationship between two intriguing aspects of quantum mechanics: the nonlocal…
It is well known that an (in general, non-commutative) set of non-Hermitian operators $Λ_j$ with real eigenvalues need not necessarily represent observables. We describe a specific class of quantum models in which these operators plus the underlying physical Hilbert-space metric $Θ$ are all represented in terms of an auxiliary operator $(N+1)-$plet $Z_k$, $k=0,1,\ldots,N$. Our formalism degenerates to the ${\cal PT}-$symmetric quantum mechanics at $N=2$, with metric $Θ=Z_2Z_1$, parity ${\cal P}=Z_2$, charge ${\cal C}=Z_1$ and Hamiltonian $H=Z_0$.
In this work we address systems described by time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonians under time-dependent Dyson maps. We shown that when starting from a given time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian which is not itself an observable, an infinite chain of gauge linked time-dependent non-observable non-Hermitian Hamiltonians can be derived from it. The matrix elements of the observables associated with all these non observable Hamiltonians are, however, all linked to each other, and in the particular case where global gauges exist, these matrix elements becomes all identical to each other. In…
We propose an optimal numerical test for genuine multipartite nonlocality based on linear programming. In particular, we consider two non-equivalent models of local hidden variables, namely the Svetlichny and the no-signaling bilocal model. While our knowledge concerning these models is well established for Bell scenarios involving two measurement settings per party, the general case based on an arbitrary number of settings is a considerably more challenging task and very little work has been done in this field. In this paper, we applied such general tests to detect and characterize genuine $n…
We study the entanglement and the Bell nonlocality of a coupled two-qubit system, in which each qubit is coupled with one individual environment. We study how the nonequilibrium environments (with different temperatures or chemical potentials) influence the entanglement and the Bell nonlocality. The nonequilibrium environments can have constructive effects on the entanglement and the Bell nonlocality. Nonequilibrium thermodynamic cost can sustain the thermal energy or particle current and enhance the entanglement and the Bell nonlocality. However, the nonequilibrium conditions (characterized b…
From the premise that an observable is real after it is measured, we envisage a tomography-based protocol that allows us to propose a quantifier for the degree of indefiniteness of an observable given a quantum state. Then, we find that the reality of an observable can be inferred locally only if this observable is not quantumly correlated with an informer. In other words, quantum discord precludes Einstein's notion of separable realities. Also, by monitoring changes in the local reality upon measurements on a remote system, we are led to define a measure of nonlocality. Proved upper bounded b…
The solutions of the time independent Schrodinger equation for non-Hermitian (NH) Hamiltonians have been extensively studied and calculated in many different fields of physics by using L^2 methods that originally have been developed for the calculations of bound states. The existing non-Hermitian formalism breaks down when dealing with wavepackets(WP). An open question is how time dependent expectation values can be calculated when the Hamiltonian is NH ? Using the F-product formalism, which was recently proposed, [J. Phys. Chem., 107, 7181 (2003)] we calculate the time dependent expectation v…
In this paper we provide a simple proof of the fact that for a system of two spin-1/2 particles, and for a choice of observables, there is a unique state which shows Hardy-type nonlocality. Moreover, an explicit expression for the probability that an ensemble of particle pairs prepared in such a state exhibits a Hardy-type nonlocality contradiction is given in terms of two independent parameters related to the observables involved. Incidentally, a wrong statement expressed in Mermin's proof of the converse [N.D. Mermin, Am. J. Phys. 62, 880 (1994)] is pointed out.
We present a method to show that low-energy states of quantum many-body interacting systems in one spatial dimension are nonlocal. We assign a Bell inequality to the Hamiltonian of the system in a natural way and we efficiently find its classical bound using dynamic programming. The Bell inequality is such that its quantum value for a given state, and for appropriate observables, corresponds to the energy of the state. Thus, the presence of nonlocal correlations can be certified for states of low enough energy. The method can also be used to optimize certain Bell inequalities: in the translati…
We give an explicit characterization of the most general quasi-Hermitian operator H, the associated metric operators η_+, and η_+-pseudo-Hermitian operators acting in two-dimensional complex Euclidean space C^2. These operators represent the physical observables of a model whose Hamiltonian and Hilbert space are respectively H and C^2 endowed with the inner product defined by η_+. Our calculations allows for a direct demonstration of the fact that the choice of an irreducible family of observables fixes the metric operator up to a multiplicative factor.
The realism-based nonlocality (RBN) is a recently introduced measure that differs from the well-known Bell's nonlocality. For bipartite states, the RBN concerns how much an element of reality associated with a given observable is affected upon local measurements on a subsystem. Here, we present an analytical proof for the unitary invariance of the RBN and that it presents a monotonous behavior upon the action of unital and non-unital local quantum noise. We illustrate our results by employing the two-qubits Werner state and thermal quantum correlated states. We show how the RBN is limited by t…
A standard approach in the foundations of quantum mechanics studies local realism and hidden variables models exclusively in terms of violations of Bell-like inequalities. Thus quantum nonlocality is tied to the celebrated no-go theorems, and these comprise a long list that includes the Kochen-Specker and Bell theorems, as well as elegant refinements by Mermin, Peres, Hardy, GHZ, and many others. Typically entanglement or carefully prepared multipartite systems have been considered essential for violations of local realism and for understanding quantum nonlocality. Here we show, to the contrar…
Based on his extension of the classical argument of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen, Schrödinger observed that, in certain quantum states associated with pairs of particles that can be far away from one another, the result of the measurement of an observable associated with one particle is perfectly correlated with the result of the measurement of another observable associated with the other particle. Combining this with the assumption of locality and some "no hidden variables" theorems, we showed in a previous paper [11] that this yields a contradiction. This means that the assumption of localit…
Non-Hermitian-enhanced quantum sensing in an optical interferometer
Key Laboratory of Quantum Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Southeast University（东南大学物理学院量子材料与器件教育部重点实验室）；Beijing Computational Science Research Center（北京计算科学研究中心）；Center for Quantum Sciences and School of Physics, Northeast Normal University（东北师范大学物理学院量子科学中心）；Center for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research, and Key Laboratory for UV-Emitting Materials and Technology of Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University（东北师范大学紫外发光材料及技术教育部重点实验室先进光电功能材料研究中心）
Aim of this paper is to show the possible significance, and usefulness, of various non-selfadjoint operators for suitable Observables in non relativistic and relativistic quantum mechanics, and in quantum electrodynamics. More specifically, this work starts dealing with: (i) the maximal hermitian (but not selfadjoint) Time operator in non-relativistic quantum mechanics and in quantum electrodynamics; and with: (ii) the problem of the four-position and four-momentum operators, each one with its hermitian and anti-hermitian parts, for relativistic spin-zero particles. Afterwards, other physicall…
The harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian, when augmented by a non-Hermitian $\cal{PT}$-symmetric part, can be transformed into a Hermitian Hamiltonian. This is achieved by introducing a metric which, in general, renders other observables such as the usual momentum or position as non-Hermitian operators. The metric depends on one real parameter, the full range of which is investigated. The explicit functional dependence of the metric and each associated Hamiltonian is given. A specific choice of this parameter determines a specific combination of position and momentum as being an observable; this ca…
Some results are reviewed and developments are presented on the study of Time in quantum mechanics as an observable, canonically conjugate to energy. Operators for the observable Time are investigated in particle and photon quantum theory. In particular, this paper deals with the hermitian (more precisely, maximal hermitian, but non-selfadjoint) operator for Time which appears: (i) for particles, in ordinary non-relativistic quantum mechanics; and (ii) for photons, in first-quantization quantum electrodynamics.
In practical quantum networks, a variety of multi-qubit stabilized states emitted from independent sources are distributed among the agents, and the correlations across the entire network can be derived from each agent's local measurements on the shared composite quantum systems. To reveal the Bell non-locality in such cases as a quantum feature, minimal knowledge of the emitted stabilizer state is required. Here, we demonstrate that knowing the stabilizing and logical operators indeed provides a new way of exploring Bell non-locality in quantum networks. For the qubit distribution in quantum …
Quantum correlations of observables for two particle states have demonstrated the nonlocal character of the quantum mechanics. However nonlocality can be exhibited even for noncommuting observables of a single particle system. In this paper we show nonlocality of position-momentum correlations of a single particle in the double-slit experiment modeled by an initially correlated Gaussian wavepacket. The positivity or negativity of the Wigner function for the state of the particle at the detection screen is related with the $σ_{xp}$ covariances. A Bell's inequality is constructed from the Wigner…
In this paper, we present a method to solve the quantum marginal problem for symmetric $d$-level systems. The method is built upon an efficient semi-definite program that determines the compatibility conditions of an $m$-body reduced density with a global $n$-body density matrix supported on the symmetric space. We illustrate the applicability of the method in central quantum information problems with several exemplary case studies. Namely, (i) a fast variational ansatz to optimize local Hamiltonians over symmetric states, (ii) a method to optimize symmetric, few-body Bell operators over symme…
