Tests such as Bell's inequality and Hardy's paradox show that joint probabilities and correlations between distant particles in quantum mechanics are inconsistent with local realistic theories. Here we experimentally demonstrate these concepts in the time domain, using a photonic entangling gate to perform nondestructive measurements on a single photon at different times. We show that Hardy's paradox is much stronger in time and demonstrate the violation of a temporal Bell inequality independent of the quantum state, including for fully mixed states.
Tests such as Bell's inequality and Hardy's paradox show that joint probabilities and correlations between distant particles in quantum mechanics are inconsistent with local realistic theories. Here we experimentally demonstrate these concepts in the time domain, using a photonic entangling gate to perform nondestructive measurements on a single photon at different times. We show that Hardy's paradox is much stronger in time and demonstrate the violation of a temporal Bell inequality independent of the quantum state, including for fully mixed states.
Local realistic models cannot completely describe all predictions of quantum mechanics. This is known as Bell's theorem that can be revealed either by violations of Bell inequality, or all-versus-nothing proof of nonlocality. Hardy's paradox is an important all-versus-nothing proof and is considered as ``the simplest form of Bell's theorem.'' In this work, we advance the study of Hardy's paradox based on Bell's inequality. Our formalism is essentially equivalent to the ``logical Bell inequality'' formalism developed by Abramsky and Hardy, but ours is more easily applied to experimental tests. Remarkably, we find that not only for a two-qubit two-setting case but also for a two-qubit four-setting case, we can construct stronger Hardy-type paradoxes based on Bell's inequality, whose successful probabilities can attain four times and seven times larger than the original one, respectively, thus providing more friendly tests for experiment. Meanwhile, we experimentally test the stronger Hardy-type paradoxes in a two-qubit system. Within the experimental errors, the experimental results coincide with the theoretical predictions.
Bell's theorem states that the quantum mechanical description of physical quantities cannot be fully explained by local realistic theories, laying a solid basis for various quantum information applications. Hardy's paradox is celebrated as the simplest form of Bell's theorem concerning its "All versus Nothing" approach to test local realism. However, due to experimental imperfections, existing tests of Hardy's paradox require additional assumptions of the experimental systems, and these assumptions constitute potential loopholes for faithfully testing local realistic theories. Here, we experimentally demonstrate Hardy's nonlocality through a photonic entanglement source. By achieving a detection efficiency of 82.2%, a quantum state fidelity of 99.10%, and applying high-speed quantum random number generators for the measurement setting switching, the experiment is implemented in a loophole-free manner. During 6 h of running, a strong violation of P_{Hardy}=4.646×10^{-4} up to 5 standard deviations is observed with 4.32×10^{9} trials. A null hypothesis test shows that the results can be explained by local realistic theories with an upper bound probability of 10^{-16348}. These testing results provide affirmative evidence against local realism, and establish an advancing benchmark for quantum information applications based on Hardy's paradox.
John Bell’s theorem of 1964 states that local elements of physical reality, existing independent of measurement, are inconsistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics (Bell, J. S. (1964), Physics (College. Park. Md). Specifically, correlations between measurement results from distant entangled systems would be smaller than predicted by quantum physics. This is expressed in Bell’s inequalities. Employing modifications of Bell’s inequalities, many experiments have been performed that convincingly support the quantum predictions. Yet, all experiments rely on assumptions, which provide loopholes for a local realist explanation of the measurement. Here we report an experiment with polarization-entangled photons that simultaneously closes the most significant of these loopholes. We use a highly efficient source of entangled photons, distributed these over a distance of 58.5 meters, and implemented rapid random setting generation and high-efficiency detection to observe a violation of a Bell inequality with high statistical significance. The merely statistical probability of our results to occur under local realism is less than 3.74×10-31, corresponding to an 11.5 standard deviation effect.
Quantum mechanics allows systems to be entangled with each other, which results in stronger than classical correlations. Many methods of identifying entanglement have been proposed over years, most of which are based on violating some statistical inequalities. In this work we extend the idea formed by Hardy, in which entanglement is not identified with the use of statistical inequalities, but by simultaneous satisfaction of certain conditions. We show that this variant of the Hardy paradox relying on marginal probabilities can be resolved only by true multipartite entangled states. Also, the state resolving this paradox for given local measurements is pure and unique in the case of qubit collections.
Hardy’s paradox (equivalently, Hardy’s non-locality or Hardy’s test) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2981 (1992)] is used to show non-locality without inequalities, and it has been tested several times using optical circuits. We, for the first time, experimentally test Hardy’s paradox of non-locality in superconducting qubits. For practical verification of Hardy’s paradox, we argue that the error-modeling used in optical circuits is not useful for superconducting qubits. So, we propose a new error-modeling for Hardy’s paradox and a new method to estimate the lower bound on Hardy’s probability (i.e., the probability of a specific event in Hardy’s test) for superconducting qubits. Our results confirmed the theory that any non-maximally entangled state of two qubits violates Hardy’s equations; whereas, any maximally entangled state and product state of two qubits do not exhibit Hardy’s non-locality. Further, we point out the difficulties associated with the practical implementation of quantum protocols based on Hardy’s paradox and propose possible remedies. We also propose two performance measures for any two qubits of any quantum computer based on superconducting qubits.
Here, we present the most general framework for n-particle Hardy's paradoxes, which include Hardy's original one and Cereceda's extension as special cases. Remarkably, for any n≥3, we demonstrate that there always exist generalized paradoxes (with the success probability as high as 1/2^{n-1}) that are stronger than the previous ones in showing the conflict of quantum mechanics with local realism. An experimental proposal to observe the stronger paradox is also presented for the case of three qubits. Furthermore, from these paradoxes we can construct the most general Hardy's inequalities, which enable us to detect Bell's nonlocality for more quantum states.