The assumption of free will---the ability of an experimentalist to make random choices---is central to proving the indeterminism of quantum resources, the primary tool in quantum cryptography. Relaxing the assumption in a Bell test allows violation of the usual classical threshold by correlating the random number generators used to select measurements with the devices that perform them. In this paper, we examine not only these correlations, but those across multiple runs of the experiment. This enables an explicit exposition of the optimal cheating strategy and how the correlations manifest themselves within this strategy. Similar to other recent results, we prove that there remain Bell violations for a sufficiently high, yet nonmaximal degree of free will which cannot be simulated by a classical attack, regardless of how many runs of the experiment those choices are correlated over.
The assumption of free will---the ability of an experimentalist to make random choices---is central to proving the indeterminism of quantum resources, the primary tool in quantum cryptography. Relaxing the assumption in a Bell test allows violation of the usual classical threshold by correlating the random number generators used to select measurements with the devices that perform them. In this paper, we examine not only these correlations, but those across multiple runs of the experiment. This enables an explicit exposition of the optimal cheating strategy and how the correlations manifest themselves within this strategy. Similar to other recent results, we prove that there remain Bell violations for a sufficiently high, yet nonmaximal degree of free will which cannot be simulated by a classical attack, regardless of how many runs of the experiment those choices are correlated over.
Device-independent cryptography provides security in various tasks whilst removing an assumption that cryptographers previously thought of as crucial -- complete trust in the machinations of their experimental apparatus. The theory of Bell inequalities as a proof of indeterminism within nature allows for secure device-independent schemes requiring neither trust in the cryptographers' devices nor reliance on the completeness of quantum mechanics. However, the extreme paranoia attributable to the relaxed assumptions within device independence requires an explicit consideration of the previously assumed ability of the experimenters to freely make random choices. This thesis addresses the so-called `free will loophole', presenting Bell tests and associated cryptographic protocols robust against adversarial manipulation of the random number generators with which measurements in a Bell test are selected. We present several quantitative measures for this experimental free will, otherwise known as measurement dependence. We discuss how an eavesdropper maliciously preprogramming the experimenters' untrusted devices can falsely simulate the violation of a Bell inequality. We also bound the amount of Bell violation achievable within a certain degree of measurement dependence. This analysis extends to device-independent randomness expansion, bounding the guessing probability and estimating the amount of privacy amplification required to distil private randomness. The protocol is secure against either arbitrary no-signalling or quantum adversaries. We also consider device-independent key distribution, studying adversarial models that exploit the free will loophole. Finally, we examine a model correlated between the random number generators and Bell devices across multiple runs of a Bell test. This enables an explicit exposition of the optimal cheating strategy and how the correlations manifest themselves within this strategy. We prove that there remain Bell violations for a sufficiently high, yet non-maximal degree of measurement dependence which cannot be simulated by a classical attack, regardless of how many runs of the experiment those choices are correlated over.
Bell inequalities rest on three fundamental assumptions: realism, locality, and free choice, which lead to nontrivial constraints on correlations in very simple experiments. If we retain realism, then violation of the inequalities implies that at least one of the remaining two assumptions must fail, which can have profound consequences for the causal explanation of the experiment. We investigate the extent to which a given assumption needs to be relaxed for the other to hold at all costs, based on the observation that a violation need not occur on every experimental trial, even when describing correlations violating Bell inequalities. How often this needs to be the case determines the degree of, respectively, locality or free choice in the observed experimental behavior. Despite their disparate character, we show that both assumptions are equally costly. Namely, the resources required to explain the experimental statistics (measured by the frequency of causal interventions of either sort) are exactly the same. Furthermore, we compute such defined measures of locality and free choice for any nonsignaling statistics in a Bell experiment with binary settings, showing that it is directly related to the amount of violation of the so-called Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequalities. This result is theory independent as it refers directly to the experimental statistics. Additionally, we show how the local fraction results for quantum-mechanical frameworks with infinite number of settings translate into analogous statements for the measure of free choice we introduce. Thus, concerning statistics, causal explanations resorting to either locality or free choice violations are fully interchangeable.
When conducting a Bell test, it is normal to assume that the preparation of the quantum state is independent of the measurements performed on it. Remarkably, the violation of local realism by entangled quantum systems can be certified even if this assumption is partially relaxed. Here, we allow such measurement dependence to correlate multiple runs of the experiment, going beyond previous studies that considered independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) runs. To do so, we study the polytope defined by block-i.i.d. measurement-dependent local models. We prove that non-i.i.d. models are strictly more powerful than i.i.d. ones, and comment on the relevance of this work for the study of randomness amplification in simple Bell scenarios with suitably optimized inequalities.
The use of Bell's theorem in any application or experiment relies on the assumption of free choice or, more precisely, measurement independence, meaning that the measurements can be chosen freely. Here, we prove that even in the simplest Bell test-one involving 2 parties each performing 2 binary-outcome measurements-an arbitrarily small amount of measurement independence is sufficient to manifest quantum nonlocality. To this end, we introduce the notion of measurement dependent locality and show that the corresponding correlations form a convex polytope. These correlations can thus be characterized efficiently, e.g., using a finite set of Bell-like inequalities-an observation that enables the systematic study of quantum nonlocality and related applications under limited measurement independence.
Bell tests, as primitive tools to detect nonlocality in bipartite systems, rely on an assumption, i.e., measurement independence. Since ensuring measurement independence in a practical Bell test is difficult, it is crucial to explore the effects of relaxing this assumption. Recently, in the simplest Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell (CHSH-Bell) test, Koh et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 160404 (2012)] built the relation among measurement dependence, guessing probability, and the maximum value of CHSH-Bell correlation function that an adversary (Eve) can fake. As well, Pope et al. [Phys. Rev. A 88, 032110 (2013)] and Yuan et al. [Phys. Rev. A. 91, 032111 (2015)] settled the same problem in the multiple-run scenario with the general input distribution and the factorizable one, respectively. However, pertinent results in the generalized CHSH-Bell test are still missing. Here, we study this problem and establish the relation among measurement dependence, guessing probability, and the maximum value of the generalized CHSH-Bell correlation function that Eve can fake. Furthermore, we also consider the multiple-run scenario and show the relations in both input distributions. Interestingly, compared with the simplest CHSH-Bell test, we find that it is more difficult for Eve to fake a violation in the generalized CHSH-Bell test in some special cases. We expect that our conclusions will serve as a reference for quantum information processing tasks such as quantum key distribution, randomness expansion, and other tasks in the device-independent framework.
The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality test is widely used as a means of invalidating the local deterministic theories and a tool of device-independent quantum cryptographic tasks. There exists a randomness (free will) loophole in the test, which is widely believed impossible to be closed perfectly, that is, certain random inputs are required for the test. Following a randomness quantification method used in literature, we investigate the randomness required in the test under various assumptions. By comparing the results, we conclude that, in order to make the test result reliable, it is more important to rule out the correlation between multiple runs than the correlation between two parties.