This note analyzed the angle-distribution of the probabilities of two-photon states come out of a single-photon's stimulated emission amplification, show that one can exploit EPR photon pairs combined with stimulated emission to realize superluminal signaling.
We analyze the possible implication of the existence of superluminal signaling for space-time structure. A new space-time transformation for superluminal signaling is presented based on the superluminal synchrony method. We argue that Lorentz transformation should be replaced by the new transformation in case of the existence of superluminal signaling. Furthermore, we discuss the possible existence of absolute frame, and give a possible practical method to probe it.
The argument given by M.D. Westmoreland and B. Schumacher in quant-ph/9801014 leading to the purported conclusion that superluminal signaling violates the no-cloning theorem is shown to be incorrect.
It has been shown that local quantum measurements and no-signaling imply quantum correlations (Barnum et al. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104, 140401 (2010)). This entails that superquantum correlations will be superluminaly signaling if we admit the validity of local quantum mechanics. We present a specific, simple instance of this situation. Our result also has the interpretation that replacing the local (trivial) dynamics in a generalized non-signaling theory (GNST) by one that admits local unitaries, results in a probability distribution that may be positive and normalization-preserving but violates …
We consider alternative models to quantum mechanics, that have been proposed in the recent years in order to explain the EPR correlations between two particles. These models allow in principle local hidden variables produced at the source, and some superluminal "hidden communication" (or "influences") to reproduce the non-local correlations. Moving to the case of three particles, we show that these alternative models lead to signaling when "hidden communication" alone is considered as the origin of the correlations.
In a recent Letter (Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 (2005) 010503) Barrett, Hardy and Kent (BHK) considered a very interesting question which of the fundamental laws of physics ensure security of quantum cryptographic protocols. In particular, they presented quantum key distribution protocol and claimed its security in a very general framework, which allows - what they call - postquantum eavesdropping strategies i.e. which "allows for eavesdroppers who can break the laws of quantum mechanics, as long as nothing they can do implies the possibility of superluminal signaling". In this Comment, however, we sh…
Random numbers are an important resource for applications such as numerical simulation and secure communication. However, it is difficult to certify whether a physical random number generator is truly unpredictable. Here, we exploit the phenomenon of quantum nonlocality in a loophole-free photonic Bell test experiment for the generation of randomness that cannot be predicted within any physical theory that allows one to make independent measurement choices and prohibits superluminal signaling. To certify and quantify the randomness, we describe a new protocol that performs well in an experimen…
The assumption that wave function collapse is a real occurrence has very interesting consequences - both experimental and theoretical. Besides predicting observable deviations from linear evolution, it implies that these deviations must originate in nondeterministic effects at the elementary level in order to prevent superluminal signaling, as demonstrated by Gisin. This lack of determinism implies that information cannot be instantiated in a reproducible form in isolated microsystems (as illustrated by the No-cloning theorem). By stipulating that information is a reproducible and referential …
The experimental violation of Bell inequalities using spacelike separated measurements precludes the explanation of quantum correlations through causal influences propagating at subluminal speed. Yet, any such experimental violation could always be explained in principle through models based on hidden influences propagating at a finite speed v>c, provided v is large enough. Here, we show that for any finite speed v with c<v<infinity, such models predict correlations that can be exploited for faster-than-light communication. This superluminal communication does not require access to any hidden …
The paper is a Chapter of a book. In it an exhaustive review of the proposals to send faster than light signals resorting to quantum nonlocality and the reduction process is presented, together with a critical analysis and rebuttal of all proposals. The most interesting part of the Chapter is the one in which the problem of quantum cloning is discussed. Actually, a proposal of superluminal signaling based on an hypothetical cloning machine has been presented by N. Herbert. The proposal does not work just because of the assumption that one can clone nonorthogonal states. The fact that such a ma…
We consider the problem of deriving the no-signaling condition from the assumption that, as seen from a complexity theoretic perspective, the universe is not an exponential place. A fact that disallows such a derivation is the existence of {\em polynomial superluminal} gates, hypothetical primitive operations that enable superluminal signaling but not the efficient solution of intractable problems. It therefore follows, if this assumption is a basic principle of physics, either that it must be supplemented with additional assumptions to prohibit such gates, or, improbably, that no-signaling is…
We understand emergent quantum mechanics in the sense that quantum mechanics describes processes of physical emergence relating an assumed sub-quantum physics to macroscopic boundary conditions. The latter can be shown to entail top-down causation, in addition to usual bottom-up scenarios. With this example it is demonstrated that definitions of "realism" in the literature are simply too restrictive. A prevailing manner to define realism in quantum mechanics is in terms of pre-determination independent of the measurement. With our counter-example, which actually is ubiquitous in emergent, or s…
Since Bell's theorem, it is known that quantum correlations cannot be described by local variables (LV) alone: if one does not want to abandon classical mechanisms for correlations, a superluminal form of communication among the particles must be postulated. A natural question is whether such a postulate would imply the possibility of superluminal signaling. Here we show that the assumption of finite-speed superluminal communication indeed leads to signaling when no LV are present, and more generally when only LV derivable from quantum statistics are allowed. When the most general LV are allow…
We show that the basic dynamical rules of quantum physics can be derived from its static properties and the condition that superluminal communication is forbidden. More precisely, the fact that the dynamics has to be described by linear completely positive maps on density matrices is derived from the following assumptions: (1) physical states are described by rays in a Hilbert space, (2) probabilities for measurement outcomes at any given time are calculated according to the usual trace rule, (3) superluminal communication is excluded. This result also constrains possible non-linear modificati…
There is now a significant body of results on quantum interactions with closed timelike curves (CTCs) in the quantum information literature, for both the Deutsch model of CTC interactions (D-CTCs) and the projective model (P-CTCs). As a consequence, there is a prima facie argument exploiting entanglement that CTC interactions would enable superluminal and, indeed, effectively instantaneous signaling. In cases of spacelike separation between the sender of a signal and the receiver, whether a receiver measures the local part of an entangled state or a disentangled state to access the signal can …
Bell's theorem implies that any completion of quantum mechanics which uses hidden variables (that is, preexisting values of all observables) must be nonlocal in the Einstein sense. This customarily indicates that knowledge of the hidden variables would permit superluminal communication. Such superluminal signaling, akin to the existence of a preferred reference frame, is to be expected. However, here we provide a protocol that allows an observer with knowledge of the hidden variables to communicate with her own causal past, without superluminal signaling. That is, such knowledge would contradi…
This is an analysis of some aspects of an old but still controversial topic, superluminal quantum tunneling. Some features of quantum tunneling described in literature, such as definition of the tunneling time and a frequency range of a signal, are discussed. The argument is presented that claim of superluminal signaling allegedly observed in frustrated internal reflection experiment was based on the wrong interpretation of the tunneling process. A thought experiment similar to that in the Tolman paradox is discussed. It shows that a new factor, attenuation, comes in the interplay between tunn…
We comment on the article of Ch. Simon, V. Buzek and N. Gisin: ``No-Signaling Condition and Quantum Dynamics'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 170405, which argues that linearity of quantum mechanics follows from lack of superluminal signals and some usual hypotheses about measurements. We argue that such assumptions in the end are ineffective as an explanation of the linearity of quantum mechanics.
Motivated by a proposal from Greenberger [Physica Scripta T76, p.57 (1998) ] for superluminal signaling, and inspired by an experiment from Zou, Wang, and Mandel [Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, p.318 (1991) ] showing interference effects within multi-particle entanglement without coincidence detection, we propose a feasible quantum-optical scheme that purports to manifest the capacity for superluminal transfer of information between distant parties
We consider the problem of deriving the no-signaling condition from the assumption that, as seen from a complexity theoretic perspective, the universe is not an exponential place. A fact that disallows such a derivation is the existence of {\em polynomial superluminal} gates, hypothetical primitive operations that enable superluminal signaling but not the efficient solution of intractable problems. It therefore follows, if this assumption is a basic principle of physics, either that it must be supplemented with additional assumptions to prohibit such gates, or, improbably, that no-signaling is…
Bit commitment (BC) is an important cryptographic primitive for an agent to convince a mutually mistrustful party that she has already made a binding choice of 0 or 1 but only to reveal her choice at a later time. Ideally, a BC protocol should be simple, reliable, easy to implement using existing technologies, and most importantly unconditionally secure in the sense that its security is based on an information-theoretic proof rather than computational complexity assumption or the existence of a trustworthy arbitrator. Here we report such a provably secure scheme involving only one-way classica…
Special relativity forbids superluminal influences. Using only the no-signaling principle and an assumption about the form of the Schmidt decomposition, we show that for "any" allowed fidelity there is a "unique" approximate qubit cloner which can be written explicitly. We introduce the prime cloners whose fidelities have multiplicative property and show that the fidelity of the prime cloners for the infinite copy limit is 1/2.
We provide a general framework of utilizing the no-signaling principle in derivation of the guessing probability in the minimum-error quantum state discrimination. We show that, remarkably, the guessing probability can be determined by the no-signaling principle. This is shown by proving that in the semidefinite programming for the discrimination, the optimality condition corresponds to the constraint that quantum theory cannot be used for a superluminal communication. Finally, a general bound to the guessing probability is presented in a closed form.
More general probability sum-rules for describing interference than found in quantum mechanics (QM) were formulated by Sorkin in a hierarchy of such rules. The additivity of classical measure theory corresponds to the second sum-rule. QM violates this rule, but satisfies the third and higher sum-rules. This evokes the question of whether there are physical principles that forbid their violation. We show that under certain assumptions, violation of higher sum-rules allows for superluminal signaling.
The impossibility of superluminal communication is a fundamental principle of physics. Here we show that this principle underpins the performance of several fundamental tasks in quantum information processing and quantum metrology. In particular, we derive tight no-signaling bounds for probabilistic cloning and super-replication that coincide with the corresponding optimal achievable fidelities and rates known. In the context of quantum metrology, we derive the Heisenberg limit from the no-signaling principle for certain scenarios including reference frame alignment and maximum likelihood stat…
We investigate a new class of quantum cloning machines that equally duplicate all real states in a Hilbert space of arbitrary dimension. By using the no-signaling condition, namely that cloning cannot make superluminal communication possible, we derive an upper bound on the fidelity of this class of quantum cloning machines. Then, for each dimension d, we construct an optimal symmetric cloner whose fidelity saturates this bound. Similar calculations can also be performed in order to recover the fidelity of the optimal universal cloner in d dimensions.
Two of the key properties of quantum physics are the no-signaling principle and the Grover search lower bound. That is, despite admitting stronger-than-classical correlations, quantum mechanics does not imply superluminal signaling, and despite a form of exponential parallelism, quantum mechanics does not imply polynomial-time brute force solution of NP-complete problems. Here, we investigate the degree to which these two properties are connected. We examine four classes of deviations from quantum mechanics, for which we draw inspiration from the literature on the black hole information parado…
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…
The coexistence between Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity is usually formulated in terms of the no-signaling condition. Several authors have even suggested that this condition should be included between the basic postulates of Quantum Theory. However, there are several scenarios where signaling is, in principle, possible: based on previous results and the analysis of the relation between unitarity and signaling we present an example of a two-particle interferometric arrangement for which the dynamics is, in principle, compatible with superluminal transmission of information. This type o…
Different ensembles of the same density matrix are indistinguishable within the modern Kolmogorov probability measure theory of quantum random phenomena. We find that changing the framework from the Kolmogorov one to a frequentist-inspired theory of quantum random phenomena -- a la von Mises -- would lift the indistinguishability, and potentially cost us the no-signaling principle (i.e., lead to superluminal communication). We believe that this adds to the recent works on the search for a suitable representation of the state of a quantum system. While erstwhile arguments for potential modifica…
There is a growing interest, both from the theoretical as well as experimental side, to test the validity of the quantum superposition principle, and of theories which explicitly violate it by adding nonlinear terms to the Schrödinger equation. We review the original argument elaborated by Gisin (1989 Helv. Phys. Acta 62 363), which shows that the non-superluminal-signaling condition implies that the dynamics of the density matrix must be linear. This places very strong constraints on the permissible modifications of the Schrödinger equation, since they have to give rise, at the statistical le…
In the Bohm picture and one-dimensional case, we show that given an adequately chosen potential for characterising obstacles, one can derive laws of motion formally identical to that of special relativity. In such a hypothetical scheme, superluminal velocities are not forbidden, but a particle cannot collide with an obstacle with an average, superluminal velocity.
Bohmian mechanics reproduces all statistical predictions of quantum mechanics, which ensures that entanglement cannot be used for superluminal signaling. However, individual Bohmian particles can experience superluminal influences. We propose to illustrate this point using a double double-slit setup with path-entangled photons. The Bohmian velocity field for one of the photons can be measured using a recently demonstrated weak-measurement technique. The found velocities strongly depend on the value of a phase shift that is applied to the other photon, potentially at spacelike separation.
Nonlinear modifications of quantum mechanics have a troubled history. They were initially studied for many promising reasons: resolving the measurement problem, testing the limits of standard quantum mechanics, and reconciling it with gravity. Two results substantially undermined the credibility of non-linear theories. Some have been experimentally refuted, and more importantly, all deterministic non-linear theories can be used for superluminal communication. However, these results are unconvincing because they overlook the fact that the distribution of measurement results predicted by non-lin…
We analyse in detail the reshaping mechanism leading to apparently "superluminal" advancement of a wave packet traversing a classically forbidden region. In the coordinate representation, a barrier is shown to act as an effective beamsplitter, recombining envelopes of the freely propagating pulse with various spacial shifts. Causality ensures that none of the constituent envelopes are advanced with respect to free propagation, yet the resulting pulse is advanced due to a peculiar interference effect, similar to the one responsible for "anomalous" values which occur in Aharonov's "weak measurem…
Summoning is a task between two parties, Alice and Bob, with distributed networks of agents in space-time. Bob gives Alice a random quantum state, known to him but not her, at some point. She is required to return the state at some later point, belonging to a subset defined by communications received from Bob at other points. Many results about summoning, including the impossibility of unrestricted summoning tasks and the necessary conditions for specific types of summoning tasks to be possible, follow directly from the quantum no-cloning theorem and the relativistic no-superluminal-signalling…
If YES, then we can look forward to physical realization of superluminal communication, as the original considerations of the ``no-cloning'' theorem were motivated in part as an explanation of why certain schemes for superluminal signaling cannot work. If NO, then it would seem that some aspects of the ``hidden'' variables must be ``intrinsically hidden'', i.e., ``unknowable'', such that ``hidden-variable'' theories belong more to the ``idealist'' than to the ``realist'' school of thought. I pose this question without proposing a definite answer. I am unaware of any commentary on this topic du…
International Centre for Theory of Quantum Technologies, University of Gdańsk(格但斯克大学量子技术理论国际中心);University of Geneva(日内瓦大学);Constructor University(Constructor大学)
Bell showed 50 years ago that quantum theory is nonlocal via his celebrated inequalities, turning the issue of quantum nonlocality from a matter of taste into a matter of test. Years later, Hardy proposed a test for nonlocality without inequality, which is a kind of "something-versus-nothing" argument. Hardy's test for $n$ particles induces an $n$-partite Bell's inequality with two dichotomic local measurements for each observer, which has been shown to be violated by all entangled pure states. Our first result is to show that the Bell-Hardy inequality arising form Hardy's nonlocality test is …
Collapse models including some external noise of unknown origin are routinely used to describe phenomena on the quantum-classical border; in particular, quantum measurement. Although containing nonlinear dynamics and thereby exposed to the possibility of superluminal signaling in individual events, such models are widely accepted on the basis of fully reproducing the non-signaling statistical predictions of quantum mechanics. Here we present a deterministic nonlinear model without any external noise, in which randomness - instead of being universally present - emerges in the measurement proces…
The no-signalling principle preventing superluminal communication is a limiting paradigm for physical theories. Within the information-theoretic framework it is commonly understood in terms of admissible correlations in composite systems. Here we unveil its complementary incarnation --- the 'dynamical no-signalling principle' ---, which forbids superluminal signalling via measurements on simple physical objects (e.g. particles) evolving in time. We show that it imposes strong constraints on admissible models of dynamics. The posited principle is universal --- it can be applied to any theory (c…
Relativistic causality, namely, the impossibility of signaling at superluminal speeds, restricts the kinds of correlations which can occur between different parts of a composite physical system. Here we establish the basic restrictions which relativistic causality imposes on the joint probabilities involved in an experiment of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm type. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, places further restrictions beyond those required by general considerations like causality and consistency. We illustrate this fact by considering the sum of correlations involved in the CHSH in…