Do Quantum Nonlocal Correlations Imply Information Transfer?- A Gedanken Experiment
R. Srikanth
备注：
4 pages text + 1 figure; REVteX; Discussion part rewritten with corresponding changes to abstract & title; Modified/alternate version of the Gedanken experiment in quant-ph/9904075
We study a generalization of the original Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment. It is essentially a delayed choice experiment as applied to entangled particles. The basic idea is: given two observers sharing position-momentum entangled photons, one party chooses whether she measures position or momentum of her photons after the particles leave the source. The other party should infer her action by checking for the absence or presence of characteristic interference patterns after subjecting his particles to certain optical pre-processing. An occurance of apparent signaling is attributed to the difficulty in treating single photons simultaneously at a quantum mechanical and quantum electrodynamic level, as required by the experiment, and points to the need for a careful study of an aspect of the foundations of quantum mechanics and electrodynamics.
We present a variation on a gedanken experiment of Hardy [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 (1992) 2981] that allows, for the first time, a Hardy-type nonlocality proof for two maximally entangled particles in a four-dimensional Hilbert space.
We present, at the gedanken level, a possibly novel non-statistical demonstration of nonlocality for two maximally entangled particles. The argument requires only two alternative experimental contexts, only one and the same single-particle observable, and leads to a contradiction with a constrained form of local realism in 50% of experimental runs. However, the argument is based on a 'plausible' but not definitive notion of locality.
An analysis of the energy exchange by photons is presented based on single-photon Gedanken experiments and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Excluding hidden variable properties of a single photon one has to accept that the total photon trajectory undergoes causal influences from the final state separated in time and space from the initial state: nonlocality and nontemporality.
Nonlocal correlations as revealed by the violations to Bell inequalities are incompatible with local models without any nonlocal correlations. However some tripartite entangled states, e.g., symmetric pure states, exhibit a stronger nonlocality even incompatible with hybrid local/nonlocal models allowing nonlocal correlations between any two parties. Here we propose a three-particle Hardy-type test without inequality, as illustrated by a gedanken experiment, that is failed by all non-signaling local models while is passed by all tripartite entangled asymmetric pure states. Our result implies t…
What is the true meaning of quantum superposition? Can a particle genuinely reside in several places simultaneously? These questions lie at the heart of this paper which presents an updated survey of some important stages in the evolution of the three-boxes paradox, as well as novel conclusions drawn from it. We begin with the original thought experiment of Aharonov and Vaidman, and proceed to its non-counterfactual version. The latter was recently realized by Okamoto and Takeuchi using a quantum router. We then outline a dynamic version of this experiment, where a particle is shown to "disapp…
We discuss a type of measurement in which a macroscopically large angular momentum (spin) is "created" nonlocally by the measurement of just a few atoms from a double Fock state. This procedure apparently leads to a blatant nonconservation of a macroscopic variable - the local angular momentum. We argue that while this gedankenexperiment provides a striking illustration of several counter-intuitive features of quantum mechanics, it does not imply a non-local violation of the conservation of angular momentum.
The possibility of nonlocal quantum communication is considered. We investigate three $gedankenexperiments$ that have variable entanglement: (1) a 4-detector polarization-entangled system, (2) a 4-detector path-entangled system, and (3) a 3-detector path-entangled system that uses an innovative optical mixer to combine photon paths. A new quantum paradox is reviewed in which the presence or absence of an interference pattern in a path-entangled two photon system, controlled by measurement choice, is a potential nonlocal signal. We show that for the cases considered, even when interference patt…
Entanglement and nonlocality are both fundamental aspects of quantum theory, and play a prominent role in quantum information science. The exact relation between entanglement and nonlocality is however still poorly understood. Here we make progress in this direction by showing that, contrary to what previous work suggested, quantum nonlocality does not imply entanglement distillability. Specifically, we present analytically a 3-qubit entangled state that is separable along any bipartition. This implies that no bipartite entanglement can be distilled from this state, which is thus fully bound e…
The interpretations of a particular quantum gedanken experiment provided by Bohmian mechanics and consistent histories are shown to contradict each other, both in the absence and in the presence of a measuring device. The consistent history result seems closer to standard quantum mechanics, and shows no evidence of the mysterious nonlocal influences present in the Bohmian description.
Results obtained in two recent papers, \cite{Kaszlikowski} and \cite{Durt}, seem to indicate that the nonlocal character of the correlations between the outcomes of measurements performed on entangled systems separated in space is not robust in the presence of noise. This is surprising, since entanglement itself is robust. Here we revisit this problem and argue that the class of gedanken-experiments considered in \cite{Kaszlikowski} and \cite{Durt} is too restrictive. By considering a more general class, involving sequences of measurements, we prove that the nonlocal correlations are in fact r…
We discuss the connection between the incompatibility of quantum measurements, as captured by the notion of joint measurability, and the violation of Bell inequalities. Specifically, we present explicitly a given a set of non jointly measurable POVMs $\mathcal{M}_A$ with the following property. Considering a bipartite Bell test where Alice uses $\mathcal{M}_A$, then for any possible shared entangled state $ρ$ and any set of (possibly infinitely many) POVMs $\mathcal{N}_B$ performed by Bob, the resulting statistics admits a local model, and can thus never violate any Bell inequality. This shows…
In instantaneous nonlocal quantum computation, two parties cooperate in order to perform a quantum computation on their joint inputs, while being restricted to a single round of simultaneous communication. Previous results showed that instantaneous nonlocal quantum computation is possible, at the cost of an exponential amount of prior shared entanglement (in the size of the input). Here, we show that a linear amount of entanglement suffices, (in the size of the computation), as long as the parties share nonlocal correlations as given by the Popescu-Rohlich box. This means that communication is…
Quantum mechanics and relativistic causality together imply nonlocality: nonlocal correlations (that violate the CHSH inequality) and nonlocal equations of motion (the Aharonov-Bohm effect). Can we invert the logical order? We consider a conjecture that nonlocality and relativistic causality together imply quantum mechanics. We show that correlations preserving relativistic causality can violate the CHSH inequality more strongly than quantum correlations. Also, we describe nonlocal equations of motion, preserving relativistic causality, that do not arise in quantum mechanics. In these nonlocal…
In order to understand whether nonlocality implies information transfer, a quantum optical experimental test, well within the scope of current technology, is proposed. It is essentially a delayed choice experiment as applied to entangled particles. The basic idea is: given two observers sharing position-momentum entangled photons, one party chooses whether she measures position or momentum of her photons after the particles leave the source. The other party should infer her action by checking for the absence or presence of characteristic interference patterns after subjecting his particles to …
In 1981 N. Herbert proposed a gedanken experiment in order to achieve by the ''First Laser Amplified Superluminal Hookup'' (FLASH) a faster than light communication (FTL) by quantum nonlocality. The present work reports the first experimental realization of that proposal by the optical parametric amplification of a single photon belonging to an entangled EPR pair into an output field involving 5 x 10^3 photons. A thorough theoretical and experimental analysis explains in general and conclusive terms the precise reasons for the failure of the FLASH program as well as of any similar FTL proposal…
Recently it was demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, how to separate a particle from its spin, or any other property, a phenomenon known as the "Quantum Cheshire Cat". We present two novel gedanken experiments, based on the quantum Zeno effect, suggesting a dynamical process thorough which this curious phenomenon occurs. We analyze, for the first time, a quantum current consisting of spin without mass. Thus, the quantum variables of pre- and post-selected particles are understood to be involved in various interactions, even in the absence of their owners. This current is shown …
It is possible to find the nonlocality type of correlations between particle pairs retrospectively, matched with the outcomes of a future entangling measurement. But this does not imply nonlocality in subensembles of product pairs, nor does it imply an influence propagating backwards in time.
We present a quantum model for the motion of N point particles, implying nonlocal (i.e., superluminal) influences of external fields on the trajectories, that is nonetheless fully relativistic. In contrast to other models that have been proposed, this one involves no additional space-time structure as would be provided by a (possibly dynamical) foliation of space-time. This is achieved through the interplay of opposite microcausal and macrocausal (i.e., thermodynamic) arrows of time.
Within the framework of relativistic quantum theory, we consider the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) gedanken-experiment in which measurements of the spin are performed by moving observers. We find that the perfect anti-correlation in the same direction between the EPR pair no longer holds in the observers' frame. This does not imply a breakdown of the non-local correlation. We explicitly show that the observers must measure the spin in appropriately chosen different directions in order to observe the perfect anti-correlation. This fact should be taken into account in utilizing the entangled sta…
A real two-particle experiment is proposed in which one of the particles undergoes two successive impacts on beam-splitters. It is shown that the standard quantum mechanical superposition principle implies the possibility of influences acting backward in time ("retrocausation"), in striking contrast with the principle of causality. It is argued that nonlocality and retrocausation are not necessarily entangled.
The results of local measurements on some composite quantum systems cannot be reproduced classically. This impossibility, known as quantum nonlocality, represents a milestone in the foundations of quantum theory. Quantum nonlocality is also a valuable resource for information processing tasks, e.g. quantum communication, quantum key distribution, quantum state estimation, or randomness extraction. Still, deciding if a quantum state is nonlocal remains a challenging problem. Here we introduce a novel approach to this question: we study the nonlocal properties of quantum states when distributed …
Nonlocal game as a novel witness of the nonlocality of entanglement is of fundamental importance in various fields. The known nonlocal games or equivalent linear Bell inequalities are only useful for Bell networks of single entanglement. Our goal in this paper is to propose a unified method for constructing cooperating games in network scenarios. We first propose an efficient method to construct numerous multipartite games from any graphs. The main idea is the graph representation of entanglement-based quantum networks. We further specify these graphic games with quantum advantages by providin…
The hitherto unexplored nonlocality of quantum correlations in the information transfer protocol of remote state preparation (RSP) is investigated in terms of a unified nonlocality argument formulated for teleportation as well as for two distinct RSP schemes. The argument differs only in the respective types of local measurements used in each scenario. One of the RSP schemes uses single particle projective measurements, while the other uses joint Bell-basis measurements. Interestingly, the quantum mechanical violations of the Bell-CHSH type inequalities formulated for each of the RSP setups, w…
We formulate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) gedankenexperiment within the framework of relativistic quantum theory to analyze a situation in which measurements are performed by moving observers. We point out that under certain conditions the perfect anti-correlation of an EPR pair of spins in the same direction is deteriorated in the moving observers' frame due to the Wigner rotation, and show that the degree of the violation of Bell's inequality prima facie decreases with increasing the velocity of the observers if the directions of the measurement are fixed. However, this does not imply a…
Device-independent quantum key distribution is a secure quantum cryptographic paradigm that allows two honest users to establish a secret key, while putting minimal trust in their devices. Most of the existing protocols have the following structure: first, a bipartite nonlocal quantum state is distributed between the honest users, who perform local measurements to establish nonlocal correlations. Then, they announce the implemented measurements and extract a secure key by post-processing their measurement outcomes. We show that no protocol of this form allows for establishing a secret key when…
We show that, assuming that quantum mechanics holds locally, the finite speed of information is the principle that limits all possible correlations between distant parties to be quantum mechanical as well. Local quantum mechanics means that a Hilbert space is assigned to each party, and then all local positive-operator-valued measurements are (in principle) available; however, the joint system is not necessarily described by a Hilbert space. In particular, we do not assume the tensor product formalism between the joint systems. Our result shows that if any experiment would give nonlocal correl…
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…
The concept and subsequent experimental verification of the proportionality between pulse amplitude and detector transit time for microchannel plate detectors is presented. This discovery has led to considerable improvement in the overall timing resolution for detection of high energy gamma photons. Utilizing a 22Na positron source, a full width half maximum (FWHM) timing resolution of 138 ps has been achieved. This FWHM includes detector transit-time spread for both chevron-stack type detectors, timing spread due to uncertainties in annihilation location, all electronic uncertainty, and any r…
In contrast to conventional, dynamical entanglement, in which particles with definite identity have uncertain properties, in so-called statistical entanglement, which arises between indistinguishable particles because of quantum symmetry rules, even particle identities are uncertain. The Bell and Kochen-Specker theorems imply that quantum properties either lack realism or possess it with a caveat of contextuality or nonlocality. In the matter of identity of multi-particle states of indistinguishable particles, these contrasting ontological attitudes are mirrored by the "bundle" vs. haecceity v…
It is a frequent assumption that - via superluminal information transfers - superluminal signals capable of enabling communication are necessarily exchanged in any quantum theory that posits hidden superluminal influences. However, does the presence of hidden superluminal influences automatically imply superluminal signalling and communication? The non-signalling theorem mediates the apparent conflict between quantum mechanics and the theory of special relativity. However, as a 'no-go' theorem there exist two opposing interpretations of the non-signalling constraint: foundational and operation…
One of Yakir Aharonov's endlessly captivating physics ideas is the conjecture that two axioms, namely relativistic causality ("no superluminal signalling") and nonlocality, so nearly contradict each other that a unique theory - quantum mechanics - reconciles them. But superquantum (or "PR-box") correlations imply that quantum mechanics is not the most nonlocal theory (in the sense of nonlocal correlations) consistent with relativistic causality. Let us consider supplementing these two axioms with a minimal third axiom: there exists a classical limit in which macroscopic observables commute. Th…
It has often been suggested that retrocausality offers a solution to some of the puzzles of quantum mechanics: e.g., that it allows a Lorentz-invariant explanation of Bell correlations, and other manifestations of quantum nonlocality, without action-at-a-distance. Some writers have argued that time-symmetry counts in favour of such a view, in the sense that retrocausality would be a natural consequence of a truly time-symmetric theory of the quantum world. Critics object that there is complete time-symmetry in classical physics, and yet no apparent retrocausality. Why should the quantum world …
In May of 1935, Einstein published with two co-authors the famous EPR-paper about entangled particles, which questioned the completeness of Quantum Mechanics by means of a gedankenexperiment. Only one month later, he published a work that seems unconnected to the EPR-paper at first, the so called Einstein-Rosen-paper, that presented a solution of the field equations for particles in the framework of general relativity. Both papers ask for the conception of completeness in a theory and, from a modern perspective, it is easy to believe that there is a connection between these topics. We question…
We have experimentally created a robust, ultrabright and phase-stable polarization-entangled state close to maximally entangled Bell-state with $ \% 98 $-fidelity using the type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process in periodically-poled KTiOPO$ _4 $ (PPKTP) collinear crystal inside a Sagnac interferometer (SI). Bell inequality measurement, Freedman's test, as the different versions of CHSH inequality, and also visibility test which all can be seen as the nonlocal realism tests, imply that our created entangled state shows a strong violation from the classical physics or any…
We bound separations between the entangled and classical values for several classes of nonlocal $t$-player games. Our motivating question is whether there is a family of $t$-player XOR games for which the entangled bias is $1$ but for which the classical bias goes down to $0$, for fixed $t$. Answering this question would have important consequences in the study of multi-party communication complexity, as a positive answer would imply an unbounded separation between randomized communication complexity with and without entanglement. Our contribution to answering the question is identifying sever…
Stephen Hawking's discovery of black hole evaporation had the remarkable consequence that information is destroyed by a black hole, which can only be accommodated by modifying the laws of quantum mechanics. Different attempts to evade the information loss paradox were subsequently suggested, apparently without a satisfactory resolution of the paradox. On the other hand, the attempting to include non-unitarity into quantum mechanics might lead to laws predicting observable consequences such as nonlocality or violation of energy-momentum conservation; but it may be possibly to circumvent these o…
Gedanken experiments in quantum gravity motivate generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) implying deviations from the standard quantum statistics close to the Planck scale. These deviations have been extensively investigated for the non-spin part of the wave function but existing models tacitly assume that spin states remain unaffected by the quantisation of the background in which the quantum matter propagates. Here, we explore a new model of nonlocal geometry in which the Planck-scale smearing of classical points generates GURs for angular momentum. These, in turn, imply an analogous genera…
We demonstrate an experimental test of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell inequality which seemingly exhibits correlations beyond the limits imposed by quantum mechanics. Inspired by the idea of Fourier synthesis, we design analysers that measure specific superpositions of orbital angular momentum (OAM) states, such that when one analyser is rotated with respect to the other, the resulting coincidence curves are similar to a square-wave. Calculating the CHSH Bell parameter, $S$, from these curves result to values beyond the Tsirelson bound of $S_{QM}=2\sqrt{2}$. We obtain $S=3.99\pm0.0…
Photons from distant astronomical sources can be used as a classical source of randomness to improve fundamental tests of quantum nonlocality, wave-particle duality, and local realism through Bell's inequality and delayed-choice quantum eraser tests inspired by Wheeler's cosmic-scale Mach-Zehnder interferometer gedankenexperiment. Such sources of random numbers may also be useful for information-theoretic applications such as key distribution for quantum cryptography. Building on the design of an "astronomical random-number generator" developed for the recent "cosmic Bell" experiment [Handstei…
The generalized Gibbs ensemble introduced for describing few body correlations in exactly solvable systems following a quantum quench is related to the nonergodic way in which operators sample, in the limit of infinite time after the quench, the quantum correlations present in the initial state. The nonergodicity of the correlations is thus shown \emph{analytically} to imply the equivalence with the generalized Gibbs ensemble for quantum Ising and XX spin chains as well as for the Luttinger model the thermodynamic limit, and for a broad class of initial states and correlation functions of both…
Bell's theorem rests on the following fundamental condition for a local system: P(a,b|alpha, beta, lambda)= P(a|alpha, lambda)P(b|beta, lambda). Here a and b are the outcomes respectively for measurements alpha on one side, and beta on the other, of an experiment involving two entangled particles traveling in opposite directions from a source. The parameter lambda (the set of "hidden variables") represents a more complete description of the joint state of the two particles. Because of lambda, the joint probability of detection is now dependent only on lambda and the local measurement setting o…
In order to have the most safe way of dealing with unanalysable quantum whole the Copenhagen interpretation takes as a "frame of reference" the preparation parameters and outcomes of the measurements. It represents {\it passive} Ptolemean-like instrumentalism directly related to "what we see in the sky" i.e. to the "surface" of the things. However the notion of quantum information leads to {\it active} Copernican-like realism which involves (intrinsic) ordering principle and thinking about the whole as being analysable. One dares then to consider subsystems as localised in space, controlled in…
We investigate entanglement transfer from a system of two spin-entangled electron-hole pairs, each placed in a separate single mode cavity, to the photons emitted during their recombination process. Dipole selection rules and a splitting between the light-hole and the heavy-hole subbands are the crucial ingredients establishing a one-to-one correspondence between electron spins and circular photon polarizations. To account for the measurement of the photons as well as dephasing effects, we choose a stochastic Schroedinger equation and a conditional master equation approach, respectively. The i…
