Local Hidden Variables Research Articles

Bloch-sphere colorings and Bell inequalities

We consider the quantum and local hidden variable (LHV) correlations obtained by measuring a pair of qubits by projections defined by randomly chosen axes separated by an angle $\ensuremath{\theta}$. Local hidden variables predict binary colorings of the Bloch sphere with antipodal points oppositely colored. We prove Bell inequalities separating the LHV predictions from the singlet quantum correlations for $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\in}(0,\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{3})$. We raise and explore the hypothesis that, for a continuous range of $\ensuremath{\theta}>0$, the maximum LHV anticorrelation is obtained by assigning to each qubit a coloring with one hemisphere black and the other white.

Steering, or maybe why Einstein did not go all the way to Bellʼs argument

It is shown that a main source of conflict between Einstein and the mainstream quantum physicists was his insistence that wave functions, like classical probability distributions, do not refer to individual particles and, in particular, do not describe individual systems completely. The EPR paper was written to argue for this position. By aiming at showing that wave functions are unsuitable as local hidden variables, the authors failed to see that a slight extension could have ruled out such local hidden variables in general. As background for this analysis of the EPR argument the notion of steering is described, and a version of the Bell argument is proved which emphasizes non-local signalling aspects. Finally, some background is given concerning a well-known paper by the present author, which is celebrating 25 years this year, and in which the first non-steering models were constructed.This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘50 years of Bell’s theorem’.

Non-contextual chocolate balls versus value indefinite quantum cryptography

Some quantum cryptographic protocols can be implemented with specially prepared metaphorical chocolate balls representing local hidden variables, others protected by value indefiniteness cannot. This latter feature, which follows from Bell– and Kochen–Specker type arguments, is only present in systems with three or more mutually exclusive outcomes. Conversely, there exist local hidden variable models based on chocolate ball configurations utilizable for cryptography which cannot be realized by quantum systems. The possibility that quantum cryptography supported by value indefiniteness (contextuality) has practical advantages over more conventional quantum cryptographic protocols remains highly speculative.

Majorana fermions and non-locality

Localized Majorana fermions emerge in many topologically ordered systems and exhibit exchange statistics of Ising anyons. This enables noise-resistant implementation of a limited set of operations by braiding and fusing Majorana fermions. Unfortunately, these operations are incapable of implementing universal quantum computation. We show that, regardless of these limitations, Majorana fermions could be used to demonstrate non-locality (correlations incompatible with a local hidden variable theory) in experiments using only topologically protected operations. We also demonstrate that our proposal is optimal in terms of resources, with 10 Majorana fermions shown to be both necessary and sufficient for demonstrating bipartite non-locality. Furthermore, we identify severe restrictions on the possibility of tripartite non-locality. We comment on the potential of such entangled systems to be used in quantum information protocols.

Separable states improve protocols with finite randomness

It is known from Bellʼs theorem that quantum predictions for some entangled states cannot be mimicked using local hidden variable (LHV) models. From a computer science perspective, LHV models may be interpreted as classical computers operating on a potentially infinite number of correlated bits originating from a common source. As such, Bell inequality violations achieved through entangled states are able to characterize the quantum advantage of certain tasks, so long as the task itself imposes no restriction on the availability of correlated bits. However, if the number of shared bits is limited, additional constraints are placed on the possible LHV models, and separable, i.e. disentangled states may become a useful resource. Bell violations are therefore no longer necessary to achieve a quantum advantage. Here we show that, in particular, separable states improve the so-called random access codes, which is a class of communication problem wherein one party tries to read a portion of the data held by another distant party in the presence of finite shared randomness and limited classical communication. We also show how the bias of classical bits can be used to avoid wrong answers in order to achieve the optimal classical protocol and how the advantage of quantum protocols is linked to quantum discord.

Two proofs of Fine's theorem

Fine's theorem concerns the question of determining the conditions under which a certain set of probabilities for pairs of four bivalent quantities may be taken to be the marginals of an underlying probability distribution. The eight CHSH inequalities are well-known to be necessary conditions, but Fine's theorem is the striking result that they are also sufficient conditions. Here two transparent and self-contained proofs of Fine's theorem are presented. The first is a physically motivated proof using an explicit local hidden variables model. The second is an algebraic proof which uses a representation of the probabilities in terms of correlation functions.

Quantum probabilistic sampling of multipartite 60-qubit Bell-inequality violations

We show that violation of genuine multipartite Bell inequalities can be obtained with sampled, probabilistic phase space methods. These genuine Bell violations cannot be replicated if any part of the system is described by a local hidden variable theory. The Bell violations are simulated probabilistically using quantum phase-space representations. We treat mesoscopically large Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states having up to 60 qubits, using both a multipartite SU(2) Q-representation and the positive P-representation. Surprisingly, we find that sampling with phase-space distributions can be exponentially faster than experiment. This is due to the classical parallelism inherent in the simulation of quantum measurements using phase-space methods. Our probabilistic sampling method predicts a contradiction with local realism of "Schr\"odinger-cat" states that can be realized as a GHZ spin state, either in ion traps or with photonic qubits. We also present a quantum simulation of the observed super-decoherence of the ion-trap "cat" state, using a phenomenological noise model.

Testing superdeterministic conspiracy

Tests of Bell's theorem rule out local hidden variables theories. But any theorem is only as good as the assumptions that go into it, and one of these assumptions is that the experimenter can freely choose the detector settings. Without this assumption, one enters the realm of superdeterministic hidden variables theories and can no longer use Bell's theorem as a criterion. One can like or not like such superdeterministic hidden variables theories and their inevitable nonlocality, the real question is how one can test them. Here, we propose a possible experiment that could reveal superdeterminism.

The Non-Signalling theorem in generalizations of Bell's theorem

Does "epistemic non-signalling" ensure the peaceful coexistence of special relativity and quantum nonlocality? The possibility of an affirmative answer is of great importance to deterministic approaches to quantum mechanics given recent developments towards generalizations of Bell's theorem. By generalizations of Bell's theorem we here mean efforts that seek to demonstrate the impossibility of any deterministic theories to obey the predictions of Bell's theorem, including not only local hidden-variables theories (LHVTs) but, critically, of nonlocal hidden-variables theories (NHVTs) also, such as de Broglie-Bohm theory. Naturally, in light of the well-established experimental findings from quantum physics, whether or not a deterministic approach to quantum mechanics, including an emergent quantum mechanics, is logically possible, depends on compatibility with the predictions of Bell's theorem. With respect to deterministic NHVTs, recent attempts to generalize Bell's theorem have claimed the impossibility of any such approaches to quantum mechanics. The present work offers arguments showing why such efforts towards generalization may fall short of their stated goal. In particular, we challenge the validity of the use of the non-signalling theorem as a conclusive argument in favor of the existence of free randomness, and therefore reject the use of the non-signalling theorem as an argument against the logical possibility of deterministic approaches. We here offer two distinct counter-arguments in support of the possibility of deterministic NHVTs: one argument exposes the circularity of the reasoning which is employed in recent claims, and a second argument is based on the inconclusive metaphysical status of the non-signalling theorem itself. We proceed by presenting an entirely informal treatment of key physical and metaphysical assumptions, and of their interrelationship, in attempts seeking to generalize Bell's theorem on the basis of an ontic, foundational interpretation of the non-signalling theorem. We here argue that the non-signalling theorem must instead be viewed as an epistemic, operational theorem i.e. one that refers exclusively to what epistemic agents can, or rather cannot, do. That is, we emphasize that the non-signalling theorem is a theorem about the operational inability of epistemic agents to signal information. In other words, as a proper principle, the non-signalling theorem may only be employed as an epistemic, phenomenological, or operational principle. Critically, our argument emphasizes that the non-signalling principle must not be used as an ontic principle about physical reality as such, i.e. as a theorem about the nature of physical reality independently of epistemic agents e.g. human observers. One major reason in favor of our conclusion is that any definition of signalling or of non-signalling invariably requires a reference to epistemic agents, and what these agents can actually measure and report. Otherwise, the non-signalling theorem would equal a general "no-influence" theorem. In conclusion, under the assumption that the non-signalling theorem is epistemic (i.e. "epistemic non-signalling"), the search for deterministic approaches to quantum mechanics, including NHVTs and an emergent quantum mechanics, continues to be a viable research program towards disclosing the foundations of physical reality at its smallest dimensions.

Testing Bell’s Inequality with Cosmic Photons: Closing the Setting-Independence Loophole

We propose a practical scheme to use photons from causally disconnected cosmic sources to set the detectors in an experimental test of Bell's inequality. In current experiments, with settings determined by quantum random number generators, only a small amount of correlation between detector settings and local hidden variables, established less than a millisecond before each experiment, would suffice to mimic the predictions of quantum mechanics. By setting the detectors using pairs of quasars or patches of the cosmic microwave background, observed violations of Bell's inequality would require any such coordination to have existed for billions of years-an improvement of 20 orders of magnitude.

Local hidden variable theoretic measure of quantumness of mutual information

Entanglement, a manifestation of quantumness of correlations between the observables of the subsystems of a composite system, and the quantumness of their mutual information are widely studied characteristics of a system of spin-1/2 particles. The concept of quantumness of correlations between the observables of a system is based on incommensurability of the correlations with the predictions of some local hidden variable (LHV) theory. However, the concept of quantumness of mutual information does not invoke the LHV theory explicitly. In this paper, the concept of quantumness of mutual information for a system of two spin-1/2 particles, named A and B, in the state described by the density matrix is formulated by invoking explicitly the LHV theory. To that end, the classical mutual information I(a, b) of the spins is assumed to correspond to the joint probability () for the spin A to have the component in the direction a and the spin B to have the component in the direction b, constructed by invoking the LHV theory. The quantumness of mutual information is then defined as where is the quantum theoretic information content in the state and the LHV theoretic classical information ILHV is defined in terms of I(a, b) by choosing the directions a, b as follows. The choice of the directions a, b is made by finding the Bloch vectors and of the spins A and B where () is the spin vector of spin A (spin B) and . The directions a and b are taken to be along the Bloch vector of A and B respectively if those Bloch vectors are non-zero. In that case ILHV = I(a, b) and QLHV turns out to be identical with the measurement induced disturbance. If , then ILHV is defined to be the maximum of I(a, b) over a and b. The said optimization in this case can be performed analytically exactly and QLHV is then found to be the same as the symmetric discord. If , , then ILHV is defined to be the maximum of I(a, b) over a with . The QLHV is then the same as the quantum discord for measurement on A if the eigenstates of are also the eigenstates of the operator on B where am is the direction of optimization of spin A for evaluation of the quantum discord and | ±, am〉 are the eigenstates of .

On the implication of Bell’s probability distribution and proposed experiments of quantum measurement

In the derivation of Bell's inequalities, probability distribution is supposed to be a function of only hidden variable. We point out that the true implication of the probability distribution of Bell's correlation function is the distribution of the joint measurement outcomes on the two sides. So it is a function of both hidden variable and settings. In this case, Bell's inequalities fail. Our further analysis shows that Bell's locality holds neither for dependent events nor for independent events. We think that the measurements of EPR pairs are dependent events, thus violation of Bell's inequalities cannot rule out the existence of local hidden variable. In order to explain the results of EPR-type experiments, we suppose that polarization entangled photon pair can be composed of two circularly or linearly polarized photons with correlated hidden variables, and a couple of experiments of quantum measurement are proposed. The first uses delayed measurement on one photon of the EPR pair to demonstrate directly whether measurement on the other could have any non-local influence on it. Then several experiments are suggested to reveal the components of polarization entangled photon pair. The last one uses successive polarization measurements on a pair of EPR photons to show that two photons with a same quantum state will behave in the same way under the same measuring condition.

Two-setting multisite Bell inequalities for loophole-free tests with up to 50%loss

We consider Bell experiments with N spatially separated qubits where loss is present and restrict to two measurement settings per site. We note the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) Bell inequalities do not present a tight bound for the predictions of local hidden variable (LHV) theories. The Holder-type Bell inequality derived by Cavalcanti, Foster, Reid and Drummond provides a tighter bound, for high losses. We analyse the actual tight bound for the MABK inequalities, given the measure W=\prod_{k=1}^{N}\eta_{k} of overall detection efficiency, where \eta_{k} is the efficiency at the site k . Using these inequalities, we confirm that the maximally entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state enables loophole-free falsification of LHV theories provided \prod_{k=1}^{N}\eta_{k}>2^{(2-N)}, which implies a symmetric threshold efficiency of \eta\rightarrow50%, as N\rightarrow\infty . Furthermore, loophole-free violations remain possible, even when the efficiency at some sites is reduced well below 0.5, provided N>3 .

In search of superluminal quantum communications: recent experiments and possible improvements

As shown in the famous EPR paper (Einstein, Podolsky e Rosen, 1935), Quantum Mechanics is non-local. The Bell theorem and the experiments by Aspect and many others, ruled out the possibility of explaining quantum correlations between entangled particles using local hidden variables models (except for implausible combinations of loopholes). Some authors (Bell, Eberhard, Bohm and Hiley) suggested that quantum correlations could be due to superluminal communications (tachyons) that propagate isotropically with velocity vt > c in a preferred reference frame. For finite values of vt, Quantum Mechanics and superluminal models lead to different predictions. Some years ago a Geneva group and our group did experiments on entangled photons to evidence possible discrepancies between experimental results and quantum predictions. Since no discrepancy was found, these experiments established only lower bounds for the possible tachyon velocities vt. Here we propose an improved experiment that should lead us to explore a much larger range of possible tachyon velocities Vt for any possible direction of velocity V⃗ of the tachyons preferred frame.

Logical Difficulty from Combining Counterfactuals in the GHZ-Bell Theorems

In eliminating the fair sampling assumption, the Greenberger, Horne, Zeilinger (GHZ) theorem is believed to confirm Bell's historic conclusion that local hidden variables are inconsistent with the results of quantum mechanics. The GHZ theorem depends on predicting the results of sets of measurements of which only one may be performed. In the present paper, the non-commutative aspects of these unperformed measurements are critically examined. Classical examples and the logic of the GHZ construction are analyzed to demonstrate that combined counterfactual results of non-commuting operations are in general logically inconsistent with performed measurement sequences whose results depend on non-commutation. The Bell theorem is also revisited in the light of this result. It is concluded that negative conclusions regarding local hidden variables do not follow from the GHZ and Bell theorems as historically reasoned.

Local simulation of singlet statistics for a restricted set of measurements

The essence of Bell’s theorem is that, in general, quantum statistics cannot be reproduced by a local hidden variable (LHV) model. This impossibility is strongly manifested when statistics collected by measuring certain local observables on a singlet state, violates the Bell inequality. In this work, we search for local POVMs with binary outcomes for which an LHV model can be constructed for a singlet state. We provide various subsets of observables for which an LHV model can be provided for singlet statistics.

Beyond Bell's theorem: correlation scenarios

Bell's theorem witnesses that the predictions of quantum theory cannot be reproduced by theories of local hidden variables in which observers can choose their measurements independently of the source. Working out an idea of Branciard, Rosset, Gisin and Pironio, we consider scenarios which feature several sources, but no choice of measurement for the observers. Every Bell scenario can be mapped into such a correlation scenario, and Bell's theorem then discards those local hidden variable theories in which the sources are independent. However, most correlation scenarios do not arise from Bell scenarios, and we describe examples of (quantum) non-locality in some of these scenarios, while posing many open problems along the way. Some of our scenarios have been considered before by mathematicians in the context of causal inference.

Does CHSH Inequality Test the Model of Local Hidden Variables?

It is pointed out that the local hidden variables model of Bell and Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) gives $|<B>|\leq 2\sqrt{2}$ or $|<B>|\leq 2$ for the quantum CHSH operator $B={\bf a}\cdot {\bf \sigma}\otimes ({\bf b}+{\bf b}^{\prime})\cdot {\bf \sigma} +{\bf a}^{\prime}\cdot{\bf \sigma}\otimes ({\bf b}-{\bf b}^{\prime})\cdot{\bf \sigma} $ depending on two different ways of evaluation, when it is applied to a $d=4$ system of two spin-1/2 particles. This is due to the failure of linearity, and it shows that the conventional CHSH inequality $|<B>|\leq 2$ does not provide a reliable test of the $d=4$ local non-contextual hidden variables model. To achieve $|<B>|\leq 2$ uniquely, one needs to impose a linearity requirement on the hidden variables model, which in turn adds a von Neumann-type stricture. It is then shown that the local model is converted to a factored product of two non-contextual $d=2$ hidden variables models. This factored product implies pure separable quantum states and satisfies $|<B>|\leq 2$, but no more a proper hidden variables model in $d=4$. The conventional CHSH inequality $|<B>|\leq 2$ thus characterizes the pure separable quantum mechanical states but does not test the model of local hidden variables in $d=4$, to be consistent with Gleason's theorem which excludes non-contextual models in $d=4$. This observation is also consistent with an application of the CHSH inequality to quantum cryptography by Ekert, which is based on mixed separable states without referring to hidden variables.

Optimal free will on one side in reproducing the singlet correlation

Bell’s theorem teaches us that there are quantum correlations that cannot be simulated by just shared randomness (local hidden variable). There are some recent results which simulate the singlet correlation by using either 1 bit or a binary (no-signaling) correlation which violates Bell’s inequality maximally. But there is one more possible way to simulate quantum correlation by relaxing the condition of independency of measurement on shared randomness. Recently, Hall showed that the statistics of a singlet state can be generated by sacrificing measurement independence where underlying distribution of hidden variables depends on measurement directions of both parties (Hall 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 250404). He also proved that for any model of singlet correlation, 86% measurement independence is optimal. In this paper, we show that 59% measurement independence is optimal for simulating the singlet correlation when the underlying distribution of hidden variables depends only on the measurements of one party. We also show that a distribution corresponding to this optimal lack of free will already exists in the literature which first appeared in the context of detection efficiency loophole (Gisin and Gisin 1999 Phys. Lett. A 323–7).

Local quasi hidden variable modelling and violations of Bell-type inequalities by a multipartite quantum state

We introduce for a general correlation scenario a new simulation model, a local quasi hidden variable (LqHV) model, where locality and the measure-theoretic construction inherent to a local hidden variable (LHV) model are preserved but positivity of a simulation measure is dropped. We specify a necessary and sufficient condition for LqHV modelling and, based on this, prove that every quantum correlation scenario admits a LqHV simulation. Via the LqHV approach, we construct analogs of Bell-type inequalities for an N-partite quantum state and find a new analytical upper bound on the maximal violation by an N-partite quantum state of S1 × ⋯ × SN-setting Bell-type inequalities – either on correlation functions or on joint probabilities and for outcomes of an arbitrary spectral type, discrete or continuous. This general analytical upper bound is expressed in terms of the new state dilation characteristics introduced in the present paper and not only traces quantum states admitting an S1 × ⋯ × SN-setting LHV description but also leads to the new exact numerical upper estimates on the maximal Bell violations for concrete N-partite quantum states used in quantum information processing and for an arbitrary N-partite quantum state. We, in particular, prove that violation by an N-partite quantum state of an arbitrary Bell-type inequality (either on correlation functions or on joint probabilities) for S settings per site cannot exceed (2S − 1)N − 1 even in case of an infinite dimensional quantum state and infinitely many outcomes.