A feasible quantum optical experiment capable of refuting noncontextuality for single photons

Elaborating on a previous work by Simon et al. [PRL 85, 1783 (2000)] we propose a realizable quantum optical single-photon experiment using standard present day technology, capable of discriminating maximally between the predictions of quantum mechanics (QM) and noncontextual hidden variable theories (NCHV). Quantum mechanics predicts a gross violation (up to a factor of 2) of the noncontextual Bell-like inequality associated with the proposed experiment. An actual maximal violation of this inequality would demonstrate (modulo fair sampling) an all-or-nothing type contradiction between QM and NCHV.Comment: LaTeX file, 8 pages, 1 figur

Package of facts and theorems for efficiently generating entanglement criteria for many qubits

We present a package of mathematical theorems, which allow to construct multipartite entanglement criteria. Importantly, establishing bounds for certain classes of entanglement does not take an optimization over continuous sets of states. These bonds are found from the properties of commutativity graphs of operators used in the criterion. We present two examples of criteria constructed according to our method. One of them detects genuine 5-qubit entanglement without ever referring to correlations between all five qubits.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Dicke-like quantum phase transition and vacuum entanglement with two coupled atomic ensembles

We study the coherent cooperative phenomena of the system composed of two interacting atomic ensembles in the thermodynamic limit. Remarkably, the system exhibits the Dicke-like quantum phase transition and entanglement behavior although the governing Hamiltonian is fundamentally different from the spin-boson Dicke Hamiltonian, offering the opportunity for investigating collective matter-light dynamics with pure matter waves. The model can be realized with two Bose-Einstein condensates or atomic ensembles trapped in two optical cavities coupled to each other. The interaction between the two separate samples is induced by virtual photon exchange

Stronger two-observer all-versus-nothing violation of local realism

We introduce a two-observer all-versus-nothing proof of Bell's theorem which reduces the number of required quantum predictions from 9 [A. Cabello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 010403 (2001); Z.-B. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 160408 (2003)] to 4, provides a greater amount of evidence against local realism, reduces the detection efficiency requirements for a conclusive experimental test of Bell's theorem, and leads to a Bell's inequality which resembles Mermin's inequality for three observers [N. D. Mermin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 1838 (1990)] but requires only two observers.Comment: REVTeX4, 5 page

Multisetting Bell-type inequalities for detecting genuine tripartite entanglement

In a recent paper, Bancal et al. put forward the concept of device-independent witnesses of genuine multipartite entanglement. These witnesses are capable of verifying genuine multipartite entanglement produced in a lab without resorting to any knowledge of the dimension of the state space or of the specific form of the measurement operators. As a by-product they found a three-party three-setting Bell inequality which enables to detect genuine tripartite entanglement in a noisy 3-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state for visibilities as low as 2/3 in a device-independent way. In this paper, we generalize this inequality to an arbitrary number of settings, demonstrating a threshold visibility of 2/pi~0.6366 for number of settings going to infinity. We also present a pseudo-telepathy Bell inequality achieving the same threshold value. We argue that our device-independent witnesses are optimal in the sense that the above value cannot be beaten with three-party-correlation Bell inequalities.Comment: 7 page

On the logical structure of Bell theorems without inequalities

Bell theorems show how to experimentally falsify local realism. Conclusive falsification is highly desirable as it would provide support for the most profoundly counterintuitive feature of quantum theory - nonlocality. Despite the preponderance of evidence for quantum mechanics, practical limits on detector efficiency and the difficulty of coordinating space-like separated measurements have provided loopholes for a classical worldview; these loopholes have never been simultaneously closed. A number of new experiments have recently been proposed to close both loopholes at once. We show some of these novel designs fail in the most basic way, by not ruling out local hidden variable models, and we provide an explicit classical model to demonstrate this. They share a common flaw, which reveals a basic misunderstanding of how nonlocality proofs work. Given the time and resources now being devoted to such experiments, theoretical clarity is essential. Our explanation is presented in terms of simple logic and should serve to correct misconceptions and avoid future mistakes. We also show a nonlocality proof involving four participants which has interesting theoretical properties.Comment: 8 pages, text clarified, explicit LHV model provided for flawed nonlocality tes

Nonlocality without inequality for spin-s system

We analyze Hardy's non-locality argument for two spin-s systems and show that earlier solution in this regard was restricted due to imposition of some conditions which have no role in the argument of non-locality. We provide a compact form of non-locality condition for two spin-s systems and extend it to n number of spin-s particles. We also apply more general kind of non-locality argument still without inequality, to higher spin system.Comment: 6 page

Computational power of correlations

We study the intrinsic computational power of correlations exploited in measurement-based quantum computation. By defining a general framework the meaning of the computational power of correlations is made precise. This leads to a notion of resource states for measurement-based \textit{classical} computation. Surprisingly, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt problems emerge as optimal examples. Our work exposes an intriguing relationship between the violation of local realistic models and the computational power of entangled resource states.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, v2: introduction revised and title changed to highlight generality of established framework and results, v3: published version with additional table I

Observers can always generate nonlocal correlations without aligning measurements by covering all their bases

Quantum theory allows for correlations between the outcomes of distant measurements that are inconsistent with any locally causal theory, as demonstrated by the violation of a Bell inequality. Typical demonstrations of these correlations require careful alignment between the measurements, which requires distant parties to share a reference frame. Here, we prove, following a numerical observation by Shadbolt et al., that if two parties share a Bell state and each party randomly chooses three orthogonal measurements, then the parties will always violate a Bell inequality. Furthermore, we prove that this probability is highly robust against local depolarizing noise, in that small levels of noise only decrease the probability of violating a Bell inequality by a small amount. We also show that generalizing to N parties increases the robustness against noise. These results improve on previous ones that only allowed a high probability of violating a Bell inequality for large numbers of parties.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: updated reference. v3: published versio

Multi-copy and stochastic transformation of multipartite pure states

Characterizing the transformation and classification of multipartite entangled states is a basic problem in quantum information. We study the problem under two most common environments, local operations and classical communications (LOCC), stochastic LOCC and two more general environments, multi-copy LOCC (MCLOCC) and multi-copy SLOCC (MCSLOCC). We show that two transformable multipartite states under LOCC or SLOCC are also transformable under MCLOCC and MCSLOCC. What's more, these two environments are equivalent in the sense that two transformable states under MCLOCC are also transformable under MCSLOCC, and vice versa. Based on these environments we classify the multipartite pure states into a few inequivalent sets and orbits, between which we build the partial order to decide their transformation. In particular, we investigate the structure of SLOCC-equivalent states in terms of tensor rank, which is known as the generalized Schmidt rank. Given the tensor rank, we show that GHZ states can be used to generate all states with a smaller or equivalent tensor rank under SLOCC, and all reduced separable states with a cardinality smaller or equivalent than the tensor rank under LOCC. Using these concepts, we extended the concept of "maximally entangled state" in the multi-partite system.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, revised version according to colleagues' comment