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arXiv:1112.3664 · Physical Review A

Using weak values to experimentally determine “negative probabilities” in a two-photon state with Bell correlations

Brendon L. Higgins, Matthew S. Palsson, Guo‐Yong Xiang, Howard M. Wiseman, Geoff J. Pryde

Published Jan 20, 2015• 38 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Bipartite quantum entangled systems can exhibit measurement correlations that violate Bell inequalities, revealing the profoundly counter-intuitive nature of the physical universe. These correlations reflect the impossibility of constructing a joint probability distribution for all values of all the different properties observed in Bell inequality tests. Physically, the impossibility of measuring such a distribution experimentally, as a set of relative frequencies, is due to the quantum back-action of projective measurements. Weakly coupling to a quantum probe, however, produces minimal back-action, and so enables a weak measurement of the projector of one observable, followed by a projective measurement of a noncommuting observable. By this technique it is possible to empirically measure weak-valued probabilities for all of the values of the observables relevant to a Bell test. The marginals of this joint distribution, which we experimentally determine, reproduces all of the observable quantum statistics including a violation of the Bell inequality, which we independently measure. This is possible because our distribution, like the weak values for projectors on which it is built, is not constrained to the interval $[0,1]$. It was first pointed out by Feynman that, for explaining singlet-state correlations within ``a [local] hidden variable view of nature \dots{} everything works fine if we permit negative probabilities.'' However, there are infinitely many such theories. Our method, involving ``weak-valued probabilities,'' singles out a unique set of probabilities, and moreover does so empirically.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.91.012113

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Bipartite quantum entangled systems can exhibit measurement correlations that violate Bell inequalities, revealing the profoundly counter-intuitive nature of the physical universe. These correlations reflect the impossibility of constructing a joint probability distribution for all values of all the different properties observed in Bell inequality tests. Physically, the impossibility of measuring such a distribution experimentally, as a set of relative frequencies, is due to the quantum back-action of projective measurements. Weakly coupling to a quantum probe, however, produces minimal back-action, and so enables a weak measurement of the projector of one observable, followed by a projective measurement of a noncommuting observable. By this technique it is possible to empirically measure weak-valued probabilities for all of the values of the observables relevant to a Bell test. The marginals of this joint distribution, which we experimentally determine, reproduces all of the observable quantum statistics including a violation of the Bell inequality, which we independently measure. This is possible because our distribution, like the weak values for projectors on which it is built, is not constrained to the interval [0,1][0,1][0,1]. It was first pointed out by Feynman that, for explaining singlet-state correlations within a [local] hidden variable view of nature \dots{} everything works fine if we permit negative probabilities.'' However, there are infinitely many such theories. Our method, involving weak-valued probabilities,'' singles out a unique set of probabilities, and moreover does so empirically.
Bipartite quantum entangled systems can exhibit measurement correlations that violate Bell inequalities, revealing the profoundly counter-intuitive nature of the physical universe. These correlations reflect the impossibility of constructing joint probability distribution for all values of all the different properties observed in Bell inequality tests. Physically, the impossibility of measuring such distribution experimentally, as set of relative frequencies, is due to the quantum back-action of projective measurements. Weakly coupling to quantum probe, however, produces minimal back-action, and so enables weak measurement of the projector of one observable, followed by projective measurement of non-commuting observable. By this technique it is possible to empirically measure probabilities for all of the values of the observables relevant to Bell test. The marginals of this joint distribution, which we experimentally determine, reproduces all of the observable quantum statistics including violation of the Bell inequality, which we independently measure. This is possible because our distribution, like the weak values for projectors on which it is built, is not constrained to the interval [0, 1]. It was first pointed out by Feynman that, for explaining singlet-state correlations within a [local] hidden variable view of nature ... everything works fine if we permit negative probabilities. However, there are infinitely many such theories. Our method, involving weak-valued singles out unique set of probabilities, and moreover does so empirically.
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Bell's theorem shows that no local hidden-variable model can explain the measurement statistics of a quantum system shared between two parties, thus ruling out a classical (local) understanding of nature. In this paper we demonstrate that by relaxing the positivity restriction in the hidden-variable probability distribution it is possible to derive quasiprobabilistic Bell inequalities whose sharp upper bound is written in terms of a negativity witness of said distribution. This provides an analytic solution for the amount of negativity necessary to violate the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality by an arbitrary amount, therefore revealing the amount of negativity required to emulate the quantum statistics in a Bell test.
Bell inequality testing, a well-established method to demonstrate quantum non-locality between remote two-partite entangled systems, is playing an important role in the field of quantum information. The extension to high-dimensional entangled systems, using the so-called Bell-CGLMP inequality, points the way in measuring joint probabilities, the kernel block to construct high dimensional Bell inequalities. Here we show that in theory the joint probability of a two-partite system entangled in a Hilbert space can be measured by choosing a set of basis vectors in its dual space that are related by a Fourier transformation. We next propose an experimental scheme to generate a high-dimensional position-entangled two-photon state aided by a combination of a multiple-slit and a 4 f system, and describe a method to test Bell's inequality using correlated diffraction. Finally, we discuss in detail consequences of such Bell-test violations and experimental requirements.