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arXiv:0808.2373 · Physical Review A

Tests of multimode quantum nonlocality with homodyne measurements

Antonio Acín, Nicolas J. Cerf, Alessandro Ferraro, Julien Niset

Published Jan 23, 2009• 30 citations

Abstract

We investigate the violation of local realism in Bell tests involving homodyne measurements performed on multimode continuous-variable states. By binning the measurement outcomes in an appropriate way, we prove that the Mermin-Klyshko inequality can be violated by an amount that grows exponentially with the number of modes. Furthermore, the maximum violation allowed by quantum mechanics can be attained for any number of modes, albeit requiring a quantum state whose generation is hardly practicable. Interestingly, this exponential increase of the violation holds true even for simpler states, such as multipartite GHZ states. The resulting benefit of using more modes is shown to be significant in practical multipartite Bell tests by analyzing the increase of the robustness to noise with the number of modes. In view of the high efficiency achievable with homodyne detection, our results thus open a possible way to feasible loophole-free Bell tests that are robust to experimental imperfections. We provide an explicit example of a three-mode state (a superposition of coherent states) which results in a significantly high violation of the Mermin-Klyshko inequality (around 10%) with homodyne measurements.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.79.012112

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Entangled coherent states for multiple bosonic modes, also referred to as multimode cat states, not only are of fundamental interest but also have practical applications. The nonclassical correlation among these modes is well characterized by the violation of the Mermin-Klyshko inequality. We here study Mermin-Klyshko inequality violations for such multi-mode entangled states with rotated quantum-number parity operators. It is shown that the Mermin-Klyshko signal obtained with these operators can approach the maximal value even when the average quantum number in each mode is only 1, and the inequality violation exponentially increases with the number of entangled modes. This is in distinct contrast with the framework based on displaced parity operators, with which a nearly maximal Mermin-Klyshko inequality violation requires the size of the cat state to be increased by about 15 times.

We investigate the violation factor of the original Bell-Mermin inequality. Until now, we have used an assumption that the results of measurement are . In this case, the maximum violation factor is as follows: and . The quantum predictions by n-partite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state violate the Bell-Mermin inequality by an amount that grows exponentially with n. Recently, a new measurement theory is proposed [K. Nagata and T. Nakamura, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 49, 162 (2010)]. The values of measurement outcome are . Here we use the new measurement theory. We consider a multipartite GHZ state. We use the original Bell-Mermin inequality. It turns out that the original Bell-Mermin inequality is satisfied irrespective of the number of particles. In this case, the maximum violation factor is as follows: and . Thus the original Bell-Mermin inequality is satisfied by the new measurement theory. We propose the following conjecture: All the two-orthogonal-settings experimental correlation functions admit local realistic theories irrespective of a state if we use the new measurement theory.

We study nonlocality tests in which each party performs photodetection and homodyne measurements. The results of such measurements are dichotomized and a Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality is used. We prove that in this scenario the maximal violation is attainable and fully characterize the set of maximally violating states. If we restrict our search to states composed of at most 2, 4 and 6 photons per mode, we find critical photodetection efficiencies of 0.48, 0.36 and 0.29. We also found an entangled variation of the famous cat states that has critical efficiency 0.32. These values are well within the limit of current photodetector technology, which suggests the present approach as a road for a loophole-free Bell experiment.

Bell tests based on homodyne detection are strongly constrained in continuous-variable systems. Can Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) encoding turn homodyne detection into a practical tool for revealing Bell nonlocality? We consider a physically motivated model in which each party performs homodyne detection and digitizes the continuous outcome via a fixed periodic binning, corresponding to logical Pauli measurements. Within this framework, we derive a bipartite no-go: CHSH cannot be violated for Bell-pair states. Moving beyond two parties, we show that finitely squeezed GKP-encoded GHZ and W states nevertheless exhibit strong multipartite nonlocality, violating multipartite Bell inequalities with homodyne-only readout. We quantify the required squeezing thresholds and robustness to loss, providing a route toward homodyne-based Bell tests in continuous-variable systems.

We develop a multimode theory of direct homodyne measurements of quantum optical quasidistribution functions. We demonstrate that unbalanced homodyning with appropriately shaped auxiliary coherent fields allows one to sample point-by-point different phase-space representations of the electromagnetic field. Our analysis includes practical factors that are likely to affect the outcome of a realistic experiment, such as nonunit detection efficiency, imperfect mode matching, and dark counts. We apply the developed theory to discuss feasibility of observing a loophole-free violation of Bell's inequalities by measuring joint two-mode quasidistribution functions by photon counting under locality conditions. We determine the range of parameters of the experimental setup that enable violation of Bell's inequalities for two states exhibiting entanglement in the Fock basis: a one-photon Fock state divided by a 50:50 beam splitter, and a two-mode squeezed vacuum state produced in the process of nondegenerate parametric down-conversion.