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