We show that, assuming that quantum mechanics holds locally, the finite speed
of information is the principle that limits all possible correlations between
distant parties to be quantum mechanical as well. Local quantum mechanics means
that a Hilbert space is assigned to each party, and then all local
positive-operator-valued measurements are (in principle) available; however,
the joint system is not necessarily described by a Hilbert space. In
particular, we do not assume the tensor product formalism between the joint
systems. Our result shows that if any experiment would give nonlocal
correlations beyond quantum mechanics, quantum theory would be invalidated even
locally.Comment: Published version. 5 pages, 1 figure
