Entanglement and nonlocality in multi-particle systems

Entanglement, the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox and Bell’s failure of local-hiddenvariable (LHV) theories are three historically famous forms of “quantum nonlocality”. We give experimental criteria for these three forms of nonlocality in multi-particle systems, with the aim of better understanding the transition from microscopic to macroscopic nonlocality. We examine the nonlocality of N separated spin J systems. First, we obtain multipartite Bell inequalities that address the correlation between spin values measured at each site, and then we review spin squeezing inequalities that address the degree of reduction in the variance of collective spins. The latter have been particularly useful as a tool for investigating entanglement in Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC). We present solutions for two topical quantum states: multi-qubit Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) states, and the ground state of a two-well BEC.     

基于量子相干性的四体贝尔不等式构建

贝尔不等式在定域性和实在性的双重假设下,对于被分隔的粒子同时被测量时其结果的可能关联程度建立了一个严格的限制,违反贝尔不等式确保量子态存在纠缠.本文利用量子相干性的l1和相对熵测度构建了四体量子贝尔不等式,发现一般实系数Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger纯态和簇纯态总是违反四体相对熵相干性测度贝尔不等式,因此违反四体相对熵相干性测度贝尔不等式的这些态是纠缠态.     

Quantum correlations in spin models

Bell nonlocality, entanglement and nonclassical correlations are different aspects of quantum correlations for a given state. There are many methods to measure nonclassical correlations. In this paper, nonclassical correlations in two-qubit spin models are measured by the use of measurement-induced disturbance (MID) [S. Luo, Phys. Rev. A 77 (2008) 022301] and geometric measure of quantum discord (GQD) [B. Daki?, V. Vedral, C. Brukner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 (2010) 190502]. Their dependences on external magnetic field, spin–spin coupling, and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction are presented in detail. We also compare Bell nonlocality, entanglement measured by concurrence, MID and GQD and illustrate their different characteristics.     

Bell inequalities with auxiliary communication

What is the communication cost of simulating the correlations produced by quantum theory? We generalize Bell inequalities to the setting of local realistic theories augmented by a fixed amount of classical communication. Suppose two parties choose one of M two-outcome measurements and exchange 1 bit of information. We present the complete set of inequalities for M=2, and the complete set of inequalities for the joint correlation observable for M=3. We find that correlations produced by quantum theory satisfy both of these sets of inequalities. One bit of communication is therefore sufficient to simulate quantum correlations in both of these scenarios.     

Objectivity,nonlocality, and the Bell inequalities

It is argued that the Bell inequalities are not a specific feature of local hidden variables theories, but obtain both for local and nonlocal theories that are objectivistic. A nonobjectivistic theory is constructed reproducing the quantum mechanical correlations obtained in realisations of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiment.     

Bell's inequalities,multiphoton states and phase space distributions

The connection between quantum optical nonclassicality and the violation of Bell's inequalities is explored. Bell type inequalities for the electromagnetic field are formulated for general states (arbitrary number or photons, pure or mixed) of quantised radiation and their violation is connected to other nonclassical properties of the field. Classical states are shown to obey these inequalities and for the family of centered Gaussian states the direct connection between violation of Bell-type inequalities and squeezing is established.     

Bell inequalities with no quantum violation and unextendable product bases

The strength of classical correlations is subject to certain constraints, commonly known as Bell inequalities. Violation of these inequalities is the manifestation of nonlocality-displayed, in particular, by quantum mechanics, meaning that quantum mechanics can outperform classical physics at tasks associated with such Bell inequalities. Interestingly, however, there exist situations in which this is not the case. We associate an intriguing class of bound entangled states, constructed from unextendable product bases with a wide family of tasks, for which (i) quantum correlations do not outperform the classical ones but (ii) there exist supraquantum nonsignaling correlations that do provide an advantage.     

Unsharp spin observables, non-locality and Fry, Walther and Li experiment

Recently it has been demonstrated that Bell inequalities for spin 1/2 particles must be modified if unsharp spin observables are considered, and furthermore, the modified Bell inequalities may not be violated by quantum mechanics if the observables are sufficiently unsharp. In case of massive particles there may be more imperfection than seems to appear in the photon EPR experiments. So the experiment proposed by Fry, Walther and Li can place experimental limits on the unsharpness of spin variables. It sheds new light on the much debated issues like non-local correlations in quantum mechanics.     

Bell's inequalities between independent particles

The prospect of inducing quantum correlations between two particles that have never interacted is discussed. It is shown that a quantum mechanical state can be formed that predicts violations of Bell's inequalities of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt type between two particles which have been at space-like separations for all times. It is also shown that these are the strongest inequalities derivable from a general local realistic theory using the same strong locality assumptions as in the Bell inequalities.     

Nonlocality in many-body quantum systems detected with two-body correlators

Contemporary understanding of correlations in quantum many-body systems and in quantum phase transitions is based to a large extent on the recent intensive studies of entanglement in many-body systems. In contrast, much less is known about the role of quantum nonlocality in these systems, mostly because the available multipartite Bell inequalities involve high-order correlations among many particles, which are hard to access theoretically, and even harder experimentally. Standard, “theorist- and experimentalist-friendly” many-body observables involve correlations among only few (one, two, rarely three...) particles. Typically, there is no multipartite Bell inequality for this scenario based on such low-order correlations. Recently, however, we have succeeded in constructing multipartite Bell inequalities that involve two- and one-body correlations only, and showed how they revealed the nonlocality in many-body systems relevant for nuclear and atomic physics [Tura et al., Science 344 (2014) 1256]. With the present contribution we continue our work on this problem. On the one hand, we present a detailed derivation of the above Bell inequalities, pertaining to permutation symmetry among the involved parties. On the other hand, we present a couple of new results concerning such Bell inequalities. First, we characterize their tightness. We then discuss maximal quantum violations of these inequalities in the general case, and their scaling with the number of parties. Moreover, we provide new classes of two-body Bell inequalities which reveal nonlocality of the Dicke states—ground states of physically relevant and experimentally realizable Hamiltonians. Finally, we shortly discuss various scenarios for nonlocality detection in mesoscopic systems of trapped ions or atoms, and by atoms trapped in the vicinity of designed nanostructures.     

Quantum teleportation of a polarization state with a complete bell state measurement

We report a quantum teleportation experiment in which nonlinear interactions are used for the Bell state measurements. The experimental results demonstrate the working principle of irreversibly teleporting an unknown arbitrary polarization state from one system to another distant system by disassembling into and then later reconstructing from purely classical information and nonclassical EPR correlations. The distinct feature of this experiment is that all four Bell states can be distinguished in the Bell state measurement. Teleportation of a polarization state can thus occur with certainty in principle.     

Monogamy relations of nonclassical correlations for multi-qubit states

Nonclassical correlations have been found useful in many quantum information processing tasks, and various measures have been proposed to quantify these correlations. In this work, we mainly study one of nonclassical correlations, called measurement-induced nonlocality (MIN). First, we establish a close connection between this nonlocal effect and the Bell nonlocality for two-qubit states. Then, we derive a tight monogamy relation of MIN for any pure three-qubit state and provide an alternative way to obtain similar monogamy relations for other nonclassical correlation measures, including squared negativity, quantum discord, and geometric quantum discord. Finally, we find that the tight monogamy relation of MIN is violated by some mixed three-qubit states, however, a weaker monogamy relation of MIN for mixed states and even multi-qubit states is still obtained.     

Nonlocality for graph states

The possibility of preparing two-photon entangled states encoding three or more qubits in each photon leads to the following problem: If n quabits were distributed between two parties, which quantum pure states and qubit distributions would allow all-versus-nothing (or Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like) proofs of Bell’s theorem using only single-qubit measurements? We show a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of these proofs and provide all existing proofs up to n = 7 qubits. On the other hand, the possibility of preparing n-photon n-qubit graph states leads to the following problem: If n qubits were distributed between n parties, which would be the optimal Bell inequalities? We show all optimal n-party Bell inequalities for the perfect correlations of any graph state of n < 6 qubits. Optimal means that the ratio between the quantum violation and the bound for local hidden-variable theories is the maximum over all possible combinations of perfect correlations. This implies that the required detection efficiencies for loophole-free Bell tests are minimal.     

Quantum transfer functions,weak nonlocality and relativity

The method of transfer functions is developed as a tool for studying Bell inequalities, alternative quantum theories and the associated physical properties of quantum systems. Non-negative probabilities for transfer functions result in Bell-type inequalities. The method is used to show that all realistic Lorentz-invariant quantum theories, which give unique results and have no preferred frame, can be ruled out on the grounds that they lead to weak backward causality.     

Exploring inequality violations by classical hidden variables numerically

There are increasingly suggestions for computer simulations of quantum statistics which try to violate Bell type inequalities via classical, common cause correlations. The Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality is very robust. However, we argue that with the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen setup, the CHSH is inferior to the Bell inequality, although and because the latter must assume anti-correlation of entangled photon singlet states. We simulate how often quantum behavior violates both inequalities, depending on the number of photons. Violating Bell 99% of the time is argued to be an ideal benchmark. We present hidden variables that violate the Bell and CHSH inequalities with 50% probability, and ones which violate Bell 85% of the time when missing 13% anti-correlation. We discuss how to present the quantum correlations to a wide audience and conclude that, when defending against claims of hidden classicality, one should demand numerical simulations and insist on anti-correlation and the full amount of Bell violation.     

Experimental observation of four-photon entanglement from parametric down-conversion

We observe polarization entanglement between four photons produced from a single down-conversion source. The nonclassical correlations between the measurement results violate a generalized Bell inequality for four qubits. The characteristic properties and its easy generation with high interferometric contrast make the observed four-photon state well suited for implementing advanced quantum communication schemes such as multiparty quantum key distribution, secret sharing, and telecloning.     

Multipartite separability inequalities exponentially stronger than local reality inequalities

I show that separability of N-partite quantum states implies new inequalities on Bell correlations which are stronger than the corresponding Mermin-Roy-Singh local reality inequalities by a factor of 2((N-1)/2).     

Local Hidden Variables Underpinning of Entanglement and Teleportation

Entangled states whose Wigner functions are non-negative may be viewed as being accounted for by local hidden variables (LHV). Recently, there were studies of Bell’s inequality violation (BIQV) for such states in conjunction with the well known theorem of Bell that precludes BIQV for theories that have LHV underpinning. We extend these studies to teleportation which is also based on entanglement. We investigate if, to what extent, and under what conditions may teleportation be accounted for via LHV theory. Our study allows us to expose the role of various quantum requirements. These are, e.g., the uncertainty relation among non-commuting operators, and the no-cloning theorem which forces the complete elimination of the teleported state at its initial port.     

On the possibility of local hidden-variable theories

It is shown that Bell inequality on local hidden-variable (LHV) theories does not apply to all of them. Therefore, there is no experimental evidence against LHV theories.