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

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

Berberine for prevention of dementia associated with diabetes and its comorbidities: A systematic review

Background A growing number of epidemiological studies indicate that metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its associated features play a key role in the development of certain degenerative brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Produced by several different medicinal plants, berberine is a bioactive alkaloid with a wide range of pharmacological effects, including antidiabetic effects. However, it is not clear whether berberine could prevent the development of dementia in association with diabetes. Objective To give an overview of the therapeutic potential of berberine as a treatment for dementia associated with diabetes. Search strategy Database searches A and B were conducted using PubMed and ScienceDirect. In search A, studies on berberine’s antidementia activities were identified using “berberine” and “dementia” as search terms. In search B, recent studies on berberine’s effects on diabetes were surveyed using “berberine” and “diabetes” as search terms. Inclusion criteria Clinical and preclinical studies that investigated berberine’s effects associated with MetS and cognitive dysfunction were included. Data extraction and analysis Data from studies were extracted by one author, and checked by a second; quality assessments were performed independently by two authors. Results In search A, 61 articles were identified, and 22 original research articles were selected. In search B, 458 articles were identified, of which 101 were deemed relevant and selected. Three duplicates were removed, and a total of 120 articles were reviewed for this study. The results demonstrate that berberine exerts beneficial effects directly in the brain: enhancing cholinergic neurotransmission, improving cerebral blood flow, protecting neurons from inflammation, limiting hyperphosphorylation of tau and facilitating β-amyloid peptide clearance. In addition, evidence is growing that berberine is effective against diabetes and associated disorders, such as atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, hepatic steatosis, diabetic nephropathy, gut dysbiosis, retinopathy and neuropathy, suggesting indirect benefits for the prevention of dementia. Conclusion Berberine could impede the development of dementia via multiple mechanisms: preventing brain damages and enhancing cognition directly in the brain, and indirectly through alleviating risk factors such as metabolic dysfunction, and cardiovascular, kidney and liver diseases. This study provided evidence to support the value of berberine in the prevention of dementia associated with MetS

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

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

Loophole-free Bell's experiment and two-photon all-versus-nothing violation of local realism

We introduce an all-versus-nothing proof of impossibility of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen's local elements of reality for two photons entangled both in polarization and path degrees of freedom, which leads to a Bell's inequality where the classical bound is 8 and the quantum prediction is 16. A simple estimation of the detection efficiency required to close the detection loophole using this proof gives eta > 0.69. This efficiency is lower than that required for previous proposals.Comment: REVTeX4, 4 page