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 that are indexed by the measurement settings and appear in addition to Bell's source parameters and (ii) the related introduction of a probability measure for all parameters that does depend on the analyzer settings. Using the theory of B-splines, we then show that this probability measure can be constructed as a linear combination of setting dependent subspace product measures and that the construction guarantees Einstein-separability.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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 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…
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.
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…
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 .
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…
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…
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}.
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.
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 …
I review the relation of the Bell inequalities - characteristic of (classical) probabilities defined on Boolean logics - with noncontextual and local hidden variables theories of quantum mechanics and with quantum information.
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…
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 ne…
In this note, we discuss a closed-form necessary and sufficient condition for any two-qubit state to show hidden nonlocality w.r.t the Bell-CHSH inequality. This is then used to numerically compute the relative volume of states showing hidden Bell-CHSH non-locality , among all two-qubit states with one-sided reduction maximally mixed.
Explicit local hidden variables models are exhibited that assume a correlation between detection events produced in the same detector at different times. It is shown that some models give predictions closer to the Bell limit than models without time correlation.
Recently, Matzkin claimed the construction of a hidden variable (HV) model which is both local and equivalent with the quantum-mechanical predictions. In this paper we will briefly present this HV model and argue, by identifying an extra non-local "hidden" HV, why this model is not local
Three classes of local hidden-variable models that violate both Bell and Leggett inequalities are presented. The models, however, do not reproduce the quantum mechanical predictions, hence they are experimentally testable. It is concluded that on one hand neither Bell or Leggett inequality fully captures the essential counterintuitiveness of quantum mechanics, while on the other hand the hypothesis of outcome independence and that of locality are uncorrelated.
A time-reversal Bell test protocol is proposed. The quantum states are prepared by faraway separated partners and transferred to the third partner who carries out Bell basis measurement on them to post-select the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs. If some loopholes open, similar as that in normal Bell test, the Bell violation in the present protocol is apt to be interpreted with local hidden variable (lhv) theory. With some modifications on the protocol, the lhvs at both sides are prevented to exchange their information. Thus they only function locally and cannot affect the behaviors of the …
We consider Bell tests in which the distant observers can perform local filtering before testing a Bell inequality. Notably, in this setup, certain entangled states admitting a local hidden variable model in the standard Bell scenario can nevertheless violate a Bell inequality after filtering, displaying so-called hidden nonlocality. Here we ask whether all entangled states can violate a Bell inequality after well-chosen local filtering. We answer this question in the negative by showing that there exist entangled states without hidden nonlocality. Specifically, we prove that some two-qubit We…
A family of Bell-type inequalities is present, which are constructed directly from the "standard" Bell inequalities involving two dichotomic observables per site. It is shown that the inequalities are violated by all the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states of multiqubits. Remarkably, our new inequalities can provide stronger non-locality tests in a sense that the local reality inequalities are exponentially stronger than the corresponding multipartite separability inequalities. This reveals that the exponential violation of local realism by separable states is an interesting consequ…
We present a set of Bell inequalities which are sufficient and necessary for separability of general pure multipartite quantum states in arbitrary dimensions. The relations between Bell inequalities and distillability are also studied. We show that any quantum states that violate one of these Bell inequalities are distillable.
We derive a set of Bell-type inequalities for arbitrarily high-dimensional systems, based on the assumption of partial separability in the hybrid local-nonlocal hidden variable model. Partially entangled states would not violate the inequalities, and thus upon violation, these Bell-type inequalities are sufficient conditions to detect the full $N$-particle entanglement and validity of the hybrid local-nonlocal hidden variable description.
H. P. Stapp has proposed a number of demonstrations of a Bell-type theorem which dispensed with an assumption of hidden variables, but relied only upon locality together with an assumption that experimenters can choose freely which of several incompatible observables to measure. In recent papers his strategy has centered upon counterfactual conditionals. Stapp's paper in American Journal of Physics, 2004, replies to objections raised against earlier expositions of this strategy and proposes a simplified demonstration. The new demonstration is criticized, several subtleties in the logic of coun…
It is shown that no theory that satisfies certain premises can exclude faster-than-light influences. The premises include neither the existence of hidden variables, nor counterfactual definiteness, nor any premise that effectively entails the general existence of outcomes of unperformed local measurements. All the premises are compatible with Copenhagen philosophy, and the principles and predictions of relativistic quantum field theory. The present proof is contrasted with an earlier one with the same objective.
We discuss models that attempt to provide an explanation for the violation of Bell inequalities at a distance in terms of hidden influences. These models reproduce the quantum correlations in most situations, but are restricted to produce local correlations in some configurations. The argument presented in [Bancal et al. Nature Physics 8, 867 (2012)] applies to all of these models, which can thus be proved to allow for faster-than-light communication. In other words, the signalling character of these models cannot remain hidden.
Assuming that quantum mechanics is obeyed exactly after averaging over hidden variables, and considering models that obey both the hypotheses of free will and locality, we establish the form of all possible hidden-variable models that reproduce the spin-singlet.
Several authors have recently claimed that Bell's inequalities (BI) do not apply to certain types of generalized local hidden variables (HV) models. These claims are rejected, by means of a proof of BI valid for a very broad class of local HV models (deterministic or stochastic, with or without memory, time dependent or time independent, setting dependent or setting independent, and even allowing classical communication between the wings of the experiment). The precise meaning of the locality requirement is clarified during the proof. The exact roles of the two assumptions that amount to Bell'…
We strengthen the bound on the correlations of two spin-1/2 particles (qubits) in separable (non-entangled) states for locally orthogonal spin directions by much tighter bounds than the well-known Bell inequality. This provides a sharper criterion for the experimental distinction between entangled and separable states, and even one which is a necessary and sufficient condition for separability. However, these improved bounds do not apply to local hidden-variable theories, and hence they provide a criterion to test the correlations allowed by local hidden-variable theories against those allowed…
A new definition of "Realism" is proposed: it is that a gedanken "spectrograph" of hidden variables behaves as an actual (say, wavelength) spectrograph. The question is: does this definition allow, by itself, the derivation of Bell's inequalities? If it were, then such a spectrograph would be impossible, for Bell's inequalities are observed to be violated. In this short paper it is reported that, on the contrary, such spectrograph is compatible with the violation of Bell's inequalities. This result puts some new light on the controversy about the hypotheses necessary to derive Bell's inequalit…
We discuss the problem of hidden variables and the motivation for introducting them in quantum mechanics. These include determinism, and the problem of meassurement and incompleteness. We first discuss Von-Neumann's imposisbility proof and then analyse it's weakness in terms of Bell's explicit hidden variable model of spin one-half particles. We next discuss Gleason's theorem and Kochen-Specker theorem and bring out the troublems with non contextual hidden variable theories. An important role is played by Einstein locality in the discussion of hidden variable theories as was first brought out …
This paper implements in a simple but rigorous fashion a model of particle interaction involving all paths within a quantum system, both for configuration space and for spin. The model, which we call the space of all paths, leads to a locally explicable conceptual framework for quantum mechanics. Using it we present two counterexamples to Bell's theorem. Moreover, we show that the result places severe constraints on possible viable interpretations of quantum mechanics: Either an interpretation must in some form represent a quantum system in terms of all paths within the system or, alternativel…
We extend the Bell inequality known for two qubits to the four-level atom, including an artificial atom realized by the superconducting circuit, and qudit with j=3/2. We formulate the extended inequality as the inequality valid for an arbitrary Hermitian nonnegative 4x4-matrix with unit trace for both separable and entangled matrices.
In a recent article Giustina et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 250401 (2015)] report on an advanced Bell experiment, simultaneously closing loopholes for local hidden-variable theories. The authors claim that 'local realism' has been refuted, unless 'truly exotic hypotheses' are made. Here I argue that a particularly wide and natural class of local hidden-variable theories survives, for instance when the hidden variables describe a background field. Such background-based theories exploit the freedom-of-choice loophole, which cannot be closed for this type of hidden variables. The dynamics of such …
John Bell's inequalities have already been considered by Boole in 1862. Boole established a one-to-one correspondence between experimental outcomes and mathematical abstractions of his probability theory. His abstractions are two-valued functions that permit the logical operations AND, OR and NOT and are the elements of an algebra. Violation of the inequalities indicated to Boole an inconsistency of definition of the abstractions and/or the necessity to revise the algebra. It is demonstrated in this paper, that a violation of Bell's inequality by Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen type of experiments can…
The experimentally verified violation of Bell's inequalities apparently implies that at least one of two intuitive beliefs must be false: that effects propagating at infinite velocity do not exist, and that natural phenomena occur independently of being observed. Giving up any one of these two beliefs (usually known together as Local Realism) is controversial. Many theories have been proposed to reconcile the violation of Bell's inequalities with Local Realism, but none has been fully successful. In this paper, it is recalled that any theory aimed to violate Bell's inequalities must start by g…
Bell's theorem proves only that hidden variables evolving in true physical time can't exist; still the theorem's meaning is usually interpreted intolerably wide. The concept of hidden time (and, in general, hidden space-time) is introduced. Such concept provides a whole new class of physical theories, fully compatible with current knowledge, but giving new tremendous possibilities. Those theories do not violate Bell's theorem.
In the above paper, it is claimed that with a particular use of the Bell inequality a simple single photon experiment could be performed to show the impossibility of any deterministic hidden variable theory in quantum optics. A careful analysis of the concept of probability for hidden variables and a detailed discussion of the hidden variable model of de Broglie-Bohm show that the reasoning and main conclusion of this paper are not correct.
This paper furthers the long historical examination of and debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics (QM) by presenting two local hidden variable (LHV) rules in the context of the EPRB experiment which violate Bell's inequality, but which are nevertheless local and deterministic under reasonable definitions of the terms, and coincide approximately with the conventional QM prediction. The theories are based on the general idea of probabilistic detection of particles depending on an interaction of hidden variables within the measuring device and particle, and relate mathematically to Fourie…
Though John Bell had claimed that his spin-1/2 example of a hidden-variable theory(HV) is an \emph{explicit} counterexample to von Neumann's proof of the non-existence of hidden variable theories empirically equivalent to quantum mechanics, such examples can be so construed only if they met all of von Neumann's requirements. In particular, that they reproduced all the observed predictions of quantum theory. To shed light on these aspects, we have, on the one hand, simplified and critically examined Bell's original example and on the other hand, constructed explicit such examples for spin-1 sys…
There are increasingly suggestions for computer simulations of quantum statistics which try to violate Bell type inequalities via classical, common cause correlations. The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality is very robust. However, we argue that with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen setup, the CHSH is inferior to the Bell inequality, although and because the latter must assume anti-correlation of entangled photon singlet states. We simulate how often quantum behavior violates both inequalities, depending on the number of photons. Violating Bell 99% of the time is argued to be an ideal ben…
Bell inequalities or Bell-like experiments are supposed to test hidden variable theories based on three intuitive assumptions: determinism, locality and measurement independence. If one of the assumptions of Bell inequality is properly relaxed, the probability distribution of the singlet state, for example, can be reproduced by a hidden variable model. Models that deal with the relaxation of some condition above, with more than one hidden variable, have been studied in the literature nowadays. In this work the relation between the number of hidden variables and the degree of relaxation necessa…
John Bell showed that a big class of local hidden-variable models stands in conflict with quantum mechanics and experiment. Recently, there were suggestions that empirical adequate hidden-variable models might exist, which presuppose a weaker notion of local causality. We will show that a Bell-type inequality can be derived also from these weaker assumptions.
Franson's Bell experiment with energy-time entanglement [Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2205 (1989)] does not rule out all local hidden variable models. This defect can be exploited to compromise the security of Bell inequality-based quantum cryptography. We introduce a novel Bell experiment using genuine energy-time entanglement, based on a novel interferometer, which rules out all local hidden variable models. The scheme is feasible with actual technology.
For a bipartite entangled state shared by two observers, Alice and Bob, Alice can affect the post-measured states left to Bob by choosing different measurements on her half. Alice can convince Bob that she has such an ability if and only if the unnormalized postmeasured states cannot be described by a local-hidden-state (LHS) model. In this case, the state is termed steerable from Alice to Bob. By converting the problem to construct LHS models for two-qubit Bell diagonal states to the one for Werner states, we obtain the optimal models given by Jevtic \textit{et al.} [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 32, A4…
