Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater: Bell's condition of local causality mathematically 'sharp and clean'

The starting point of the present paper is Bell's notion of local causality and his own sharpening of it so as to provide for mathematical formalisation. Starting with Norsen's (2007, 2009) analysis of this formalisation, it is subjected to a critique that reveals two crucial aspects that have so far not been properly taken into account. These are (i) the correct understanding of the notions of sufficiency, completeness and redundancy involved; and (ii) the fact that the apparatus settings and measurement outcomes have very different theoretical roles in the candidate theories under study. Both aspects are not adequately incorporated in the standard formalisation, and we will therefore do so. The upshot of our analysis is a more detailed, sharp and clean mathematical expression of the condition of local causality. A preliminary analysis of the repercussions of our proposal shows that it is able to locate exactly where and how the notions of locality and causality are involved in formalising Bell's condition of local causality.Comment: 14 pages. To be published in PSE volume "Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation", edited by Dieks, et a

Weak values and the Leggett-Garg inequality in solid-state qubits

An implementation of weak values is investigated in solid-state qubits. We demonstrate that a weak value can be non-classical if and only if a Leggett-Garg inequality can also be violated. Generalized weak values are described, where post-selection on a range of weak measurement results. Imposing classical weak values permits the derivation of Leggett-Garg inequalities for bounded operators. Our analysis is presented in terms of kicked quantum nondemolition measurements on a quantum double-dot charge qubit.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

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 structure inherent to an 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 an 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 S_{1}x...xS_{N}-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 S_{1}x...xS_{N}-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.Comment: Improved, edited versio

Characterizing the nonlocal correlations of particles that never interacted

Quantum systems that have never interacted can become nonlocally correlated through a process called entanglement swapping. To characterize nonlocality in this context, we introduce local models where quantum systems that are initially uncorrelated are described by uncorrelated local variables. While a pair of maximally entangled qubits prepared in the usual way (i.e., emitted from a common source) requires a visibility close to 70% to violate a Bell inequality, we show that an entangled pair generated through entanglement swapping will already violate a Bell inequality for visibilities as low as 50% under our assumption.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Comments on the superluminal motion in Cygnus X-3

Following the recent discovery that Cyg X-3 exhibits superluminal motion, the implications of superluminal expansion and contraction are investigated. We propose that the effect is due to either a propagating photon pattern or to outwardly moving shells illuminated by an intense beam of radiation.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS; 5 pages, 3 figure

Entanglement of two distant Bose-Einstein condensates by detection of Bragg-scattered photons

We show that it is possible to generate entanglement between two distant Bose-Einstein condensates by detection of Hanbury Brown-Twiss type correlations in photons Bragg-scattered by the condensates. Upon coincident detection of two photons by two detectors, the projected joint state of two condensates is shown to be non-Gaussian. We verify the existence of entanglement by showing that the partially transposed state is negative. Further we use the inequality in terms of higher order moments to confirm entanglement. Our proposed scheme can be generalized for multiple condensates and also for spinor condensates with Bragg scattering of polarized light with the latter capable of producing hyper entanglement.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Axial anomaly of QED in a strong magnetic field and noncommutative anomaly

The Adler-Bell-Jackiw (ABJ) anomaly of a 3+1 dimensional QED is calculated in the presence of a strong magnetic field. It is shown that in the regime with the lowest Landau level (LLL) dominance a dimensional reduction from D=4 to D=2 dimensions occurs in the longitudinal sector of the low energy effective field theory. In the chiral limit, the resulting anomaly is therefore comparable with the axial anomaly of a two dimensional massless Schwinger model. It is further shown that the U(1) axial anomaly of QED in a strong magnetic field is closely related to the ``nonplanar'' axial anomaly of a conventional noncommutative QED.Comment: 18 pp, no figure. v2: The version accepted to be publidhed in PR

Multipartite Nonlocality without Entanglement in Many Dimensions

We present a generic method to construct a product basis exhibiting Nonlocality Without Entanglement with $n$ parties each holding a system of dimension at least $n-1$. This basis is generated via a quantum circuit made of control-Discrete Fourier Transform gates acting on the computational basis. The simplicity of our quantum circuit allows for an intuitive understanding of this new type of nonlocality. We also show how this circuit can be used to construct Unextendible Product Bases and their associated Bound Entangled States. To our knowledge, this is the first method which, given a general Hilbert space $\bigotimes_{i=1}^n {\cal H}_{d_i}$ with $d_i\le n-1$, makes it possible to construct (i) a basis exhibiting Nonlocality Without Entanglement, (ii) an Unextendible Product Basis, and (iii) a Bound Entangled state.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure