Noncontextual Hidden Variables Research Articles

Stronger Hardy-like proof of quantum contextuality

A Hardy-like proof of quantum contextuality is a compelling way to see the conflict between quantum theory and noncontextual hidden variables (NCHVs), as the latter predict that a particular probability must be zero, while quantum theory predicts a nonzero value. For the existing Hardy-like proofs, the success probability tends to 1/2 when the number of measurement settings n goes to infinity. It means the conflict between the existing Hardy-like proof and NCHV theory is weak, which is not conducive to experimental observation. Here we advance the study of a stronger Hardy-like proof of quantum contextuality, whose success probability is always higher than the previous ones generated from a certain n -cycle graph. Furthermore, the success probability tends to 1 when n goes to infinity. We perform the experimental test of the Hardy-like proof in the simplest case of n = 7 by using a four-dimensional quantum system encoded in the polarization and orbital angular momentum of single photons. The experimental result agrees with the theoretical prediction within experimental errors. In addition, by starting from our Hardy-like proof, one can establish the stronger noncontextuality inequality, for which the quantum-classical ratio is higher with the same n , which provides a new method to construct some optimal noncontextuality inequalities. Our results offer a way for optimizing and enriching exclusivity graphs, helping to explore more abundant quantum properties.

Quantum Advantage in Information Retrieval

Random access codes have provided many examples of quantum advantage in communication, but concern only one kind of information retrieval task. We introduce a related task - the Torpedo Game - and show that it admits greater quantum advantage than the comparable random access code. Perfect quantum strategies involving prepare-and-measure protocols with experimentally accessible three-level systems emerge via analysis in terms of the discrete Wigner function. The example is leveraged to an operational advantage in a pacifist version of the strategy game Battleship. We pinpoint a characteristic of quantum systems that enables quantum advantage in any bounded-memory information retrieval task. While preparation contextuality has previously been linked to advantages in random access coding we focus here on a different characteristic called sequential contextuality. It is shown not only to be necessary and sufficient for quantum advantage, but also to quantify the degree of advantage. Our perfect qutrit strategy for the Torpedo Game entails the strongest type of inconsistency with non-contextual hidden variables, revealing logical paradoxes with respect to those assumptions.

LINEARITY OF QUANTUM PROBABILITY MEASURE AND HARDY'S MODEL

We re-examine d = 4 hidden-variables model for a system of two spin-1/2 particles in view of the concrete model of Hardy, who analyzed the criterion of entanglement without referring to inequality. The basis of our analysis is the linearity of the probability measure related to the Born probability interpretation, which excludes noncontextual hidden-variables model in d≥3. To be specific, we note the inconsistency of the noncontextual hidden-variables model in d = 4 with the linearity of the quantum mechanical probability measure in the sense 〈ψ|a⋅σ ⊗b ⋅σ|ψ〉+ 〈ψ|a ⋅σ ⊗b′ ⋅σ|ψ〉 = 〈ψ|a⋅σ⊗(b + b′)⋅σ|ψ〉 for noncollinear b and b′. It is then shown that Hardy's model in d = 4 does not lead to a unique mathematical expression in the demonstration of the discrepancy of local realism (hidden-variables model) with entanglement and thus his proof is incomplete. We identify the origin of this nonuniqueness with the nonuniqueness of translating quantum mechanical expressions into expressions in hidden-variables model, which results from the failure of the above linearity of the probability measure. In contrast, if the linearity of the probability measure is strictly imposed, which tantamounts to asking that the noncontextual hidden-variables model in d = 4 gives the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality |〈B〉|≤2 uniquely, it is shown that the hidden-variables model can describe only separable quantum mechanical states; this conclusion is in perfect agreement with the so-called Gisin's theorem which states that |〈B〉|≤2 implies separable states.

Rotational covariance and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger theorems for three or more particles of any dimension

Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states are characterized by their transformation properties under a continuous symmetry group, and $N$-body operators that transform covariantly exhibit a wealth of GHZ contradictions. We show that local or noncontextual hidden variables cannot duplicate this covariance for any state-changing transformations, and we extract specific GHZ contradictions from discrete subgroups, with no restrictions on particle number $N$ or dimension $d$ except for the fundamental requirement that $N \geq 3$ for nonprobabilistic contradictions. However, the specific contradictions fall into three regimes distinguished by increasing demands on the number of measurement operators required for the proofs. We introduce new methods of proof that define these regimes. The first recovers theorems equivalent to those found recently by Ryu et. al. \cite{RLZL}, the first operator-based theorems for all odd dimensions, $d$, covering many (but not all) particle numbers $N$ for each $d$. The second and third produce new theorems that fill all remaining gaps down to $N=3$, for every $d$. The common origin of all such GHZ contradictions is that the GHZ states and measurement operators transform according to different representations of the symmetry group, which has an intuitive physical interpretation.

Quantum contextuality for a relativistic spin-1/2 particle

The quantum predictions for a single nonrelativistic spin-1/2 particle can be reproduced by noncontextual hidden variables. Here we show that quantum contextuality for a relativistic electron moving in a Coulomb potential naturally emerges if relativistic effects are taken into account. The contextuality can be identified through the violation of noncontextuality inequalities. We also discuss quantum contextuality for the free Dirac electron as well as the relativistic Dirac oscillator.

Testing Contextuality on Quantum Ensembles with One Clean Qubit

We present a protocol to evaluate the expectation value of the correlations of measurement outcomes for ensembles of quantum systems, and use it to experimentally demonstrate--under an assumption of fair sampling--the violation of an inequality that is satisfied by any noncontextual hidden-variables theory. The experiment is performed on an ensemble of molecular nuclear spins in the solid state, using established nuclear magnetic resonance techniques for quantum-information processing.

POVMs and hidden variables

Recent results by Paul Busch and Adan Cabello claim to show that by appealing to POVMs, non-contextual hidden variables can be ruled out in two dimensions. While the results of Busch and Cabello are mathematically correct, interpretive problems render them problematic as no hidden variable proofs.

A Bell inequality analog in quantum measure theory

One obtains Bell's inequalities if one posits a hypothetical joint probability distribution, or measure, whose marginals yield the probabilities produced by the spin measurements in question. The existence of a joint measure is in turn equivalent to a certain causality condition known as ‘screening off’. We show that if one assumes, more generally, a joint quantal measure, or ‘decoherence functional’, one obtains instead an analogous inequality weaker by a factor of . The proof of this ‘Tsirel'son inequality’ is geometrical and rests on the possibility of associating a Hilbert space to any strongly positive quantal measure. These results lead both to a question: ‘Does a joint measure follow from some quantal analog of ‘screening off’?’, and to the observation that non-contextual hidden variables are viable in histories-based quantum mechanics, even if they are excluded classically.

Quantum Logic, Probability, and Information: The Relation with the Bell Inequalities

We study the relation between the Bell inequalities—characteristic of noncontextual hidden variables theories of quantum mechanics—with quantum logic, quantum probability, and quantum information. The emphasis is on clarity and simplicity, although sometimes this implies a lack of mathematical rigor which, I hope, could be resolved without difficulty by the reader.

Quantum states and generalized observables: a simple proof of Gleason's theorem.

A quantum state can be understood in a loose sense as a map that assigns a value to every observable. Formalizing this characterization of states in terms of generalized probability distributions on the set of effects, we obtain a simple proof of the result, analogous to Gleason's theorem, that any quantum state is given by a density operator. As a corollary we obtain a von Neumann-type argument against noncontextual hidden variables. It follows that on an individual interpretation of quantum mechanics the values of effects are appropriately understood as propensities.

Experimental Test of the Kochen-Specker Theorem with Single Photons

Using the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process in a type-I phase matching beta-barium-borate crystal as a single photon source, we perform an all-or-nothing-type Kochen-Specker experiment proposed by Simon et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1783 (2000)]] to verify whether noncontextual hidden variables or quantum mechanics is right. The results strongly agree with quantum mechanics.

Hidden-variable theorems for real experiments.

It has recently been questioned whether the Kochen-Specker theorem is relevant to real experiments, which by necessity only have finite precision. We give an affirmative answer to this question by showing how to derive hidden-variable theorems that apply to real experiments, so that noncontextual hidden variables can indeed be experimentally disproved. The essential point is that for the derivation of hidden-variable theorems one does not have to know which observables are really measured by the apparatus. Predictions can be derived for observables that are defined in an entirely operational way.

Feasible "Kochen-Specker" experiment with single particles

We present a simple experimental scheme which can be used to demonstrate an all-or-nothing-type contradiction between noncontextual hidden variables and quantum mechanics. The scheme, which is inspired by recent ideas by Cabello and Garcia-Alcaine, shows that even for a single particle, path and spin information cannot be predetermined in a noncontextual way.

KOCHEN–SPECKER THEOREM AND EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON HIDDEN VARIABLES

A recent proposal to experimentally test quantum mechanics against noncontextual hidden-variable theories [Phys. Rev. Lett.80, 1797 (1998)] is shown to be related with the smallest proof of the Kochen–Specker theorem currently known [Phys. Lett.A212, 183 (1996)]. This proof contains eighteen yes-no questions about a four-dimensional physical system, combined in nine mutually incompatible tests. When these tests are considered as tests about a two-part two-state system, then quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden variables make the same predictions for eight of them, but make different predictions for the ninth. Therefore, this ninth test would allow us to discriminate between quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden-variable theories in a (gedanken) single run experiment.

No-hidden-variables proof for two spin- particles preselected and postselected in unentangled states

It is a well-known fact that all the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics on the state of any physical system represented by a two-dimensional Hilbert space can always be duplicated by a noncontextual hidden-variables model. In this paper, I show that, in some cases, when we consider an additional independent (unentangled) two-dimensional system, the quantum description of the resulting composite system cannot be reproduced using noncontextual hidden variables. In particular, a no-hidden-variables proof is presented for two individual spin- particles preselected in an uncorrelated state |A〉\ensuremath{\bigotimes}|B〉 and postselected in another uncorrelated state |a〉\ensuremath{\bigotimes}|B〉, |B〉 being the same state for the second particle in both preselection and postselection.

Bell - Kochen - Specker theorem for any finite dimension

The Bell - Kochen - Specker theorem against non-contextual hidden variables can be proved by constructing a finite set of `totally non-colourable' directions, as Kochen and Specker did in a Hilbert space of dimension n = 3. We generalize Kochen and Specker's set to Hilbert spaces of any finite dimension , in a three-step process that shows the relationship between different kinds of proofs (`continuum', `probabilistic', `state-specific' and `state-independent') of the Bell - Kochen - Specker theorem. At the same time, this construction of a totally non-colourable set of directions in any dimension explicitly solves the question raised by Zimba and Penrose about the existence of such a set for n = 5.

A hidden-variables versus quantum mechanics experiment

In the light of the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem, we examine a feasible experimental test in order to discriminate between non-contextual hidden-variables and some probabilistic predictions of quantum mechanics.