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arXiv:1411.4787 · Physical Review A

Requirements for a loophole-free photonic Bell test using imperfect setting generators

Johannes Kofler, Marissa Giustina, Jan-Åke Larsson, Morgan W. Mitchell

Published Mar 10, 2016• 87 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Experimental violations of Bell inequalities are in general vulnerable to so-called loopholes. In this work, we analyze the characteristics of a loophole-free Bell test with photons, closing simultaneously the locality, freedom-of-choice, fair-sampling (i.e., detection), coincidence-time, and memory loopholes. We pay special attention to the effect of excess predictability in the setting choices due to nonideal random-number generators. We discuss necessary adaptations of the Clauser-Horne and Eberhard inequality when using such imperfect devices and---using Hoeffding's inequality and Doob's optional stopping theorem---the statistical analysis in such Bell tests.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.032115

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Experimental violations of Bell inequalities are in general vulnerable to so-called loopholes. In this work, we analyze the characteristics of a loophole-free Bell test with photons, closing simultaneously the locality, freedom-of-choice, fair-sampling (i.e., detection), coincidence-time, and memory loopholes. We pay special attention to the effect of excess predictability in the setting choices due to nonideal random-number generators. We discuss necessary adaptations of the Clauser-Horne and Eberhard inequality when using such imperfect devices and---using Hoeffding's inequality and Doob's optional stopping theorem---the statistical analysis in such Bell tests.
In a local realist model, physical properties are defined prior to and independent of measurement and no physical influence can propagate faster than the speed of light. Proper experimental violation of a Bell inequality would show that the world cannot be described with such a model. Experiments intended to demonstrate a violation usually require additional assumptions that make them vulnerable to a number of ``loopholes.'' In both pulsed and continuously pumped photonic experiments, an experimenter needs to identify which detected photons belong to the same pair, giving rise to the coincidence-time loophole. Here, via two different methods, we derive Clauser-Horne- and Eberhard-type inequalities that are not only free of the fair-sampling assumption (thus not being vulnerable to the detection loophole), but also free of the fair-coincidence assumption (thus not being vulnerable to the coincidence-time loophole). Both approaches can be used for pulsed as well as for continuously pumped experiments. Moreover, as they can also be applied to already existing experimental data, we finally show that a recent experiment [Giustina et al., Nature (London) 497, 227 (2013)] violated local realism without requiring the fair-coincidence assumption.
We present a source of entangled photons that violates a Bell inequality free of the "fair-sampling" assumption, by over 7 standard deviations. This violation is the first reported experiment with photons to close the detection loophole, and we demonstrate enough "efficiency" overhead to eventually perform a fully loophole-free test of local realism. The entanglement quality is verified by maximally violating additional Bell tests, testing the upper limit of quantum correlations. Finally, we use the source to generate "device-independent" private quantum random numbers at rates over 4 orders of magnitude beyond previous experiments.
Recent experiments using innovative optical detectors and techniques have strongly increased the capacity of testing the violation of the Bell's inequalities in Nature. Most of them have used the Eberhard's inequality (EI) to close the ``detection'' loophole. Closing the ``locality'' loophole has been attempted by spacelike separated detections and fast changes of the bases of observation, driven by random number generators of new design. Also, pulsed pumping and time-resolved data recording to close the ``time-coincidence'' loophole, and sophisticated statistical methods to close the ``memory'' loophole, have been used. In this paper, the meaning of the EI is reviewed. A simple hidden variables theory based on a relaxation of the condition of ``measurement independence,'' which was devised long ago for the Clauser-Horne-Shimony and Holt inequality, is adapted to the EI case. It is used here to evaluate the significance of the results of the recent experiments, which are briefly described. A table summarizes the main results.
Summary form only given. In a Bell experiment, one prepares pairs of entangled particles and sends them to two observers, Alice and Bob, for measurement and detection [1]. For some choices of their measurement settings, Alice and Bob may observe strong correlations between their results in accordance with the predictions of quantum mechanical theory. Conversely, any physical theory that assumes no physical influence can be faster than the speed of light and that properties of physical systems are elements of reality [2] - a local realistic theory - can predict only a limited amount of correlation between Alice's and Bob's measurement outcomes. Upon observing correlations sufficient to violate Bell's inequality, Alice and Bob must abandon local realism.It is common that in an experiment, some particles emitted by the source will not be detected. Then the subset of detected particles might display correlations that violate the Bell inequality although the entire ensemble can be described by a local realistic theory [3]. To achieve a conclusive Bell violation without assuming that the detected particles are a “fair” sample, a highly efficient setup is necessary. Due to experimental limitations, fair sampling has been assumed in most Bell experiments performed to date, and it has never been possible to avoid this assumption with photons due to the absence of efficient sources and detectors. Here we report the first Bell experiment with photons that does not rely on any fair-sampling assumption. In our experiment we employ the Eberhard inequality, a Bell inequality that by construction does not rely on the fair-sampling assumption [4]. Our source of entangled photon pairs utilizes bulk-crystal spontaneous parametric downconversion in a Sagnac configuration, which has shown to be very efficient [5, 6]. For photon detection, we employ superconducting transition-edge sensors, which not only offer high efficiency but also are intrinsically free of dark counts [7]. This combination of features is imperative for an experiment in which no correction of count rates can be tolerated. We achieve uncorrected coupling efficiencies over 73% in each arm of our source, facilitating a violation of the inequality by nearly 70 standard deviations after five minutes of measurement. Since the first experimental Bell test, a satisfactory laboratory realization of the motivating gedankenexperiment has remained an outstanding challenge. The two other main assumptions include “locality” [8, 9] and “freedom of choice” [10]. Invoking any of these renders an experiment vulnerable to explanation by a local realistic theory. The realization of an experiment that is free of all three assumptions-a so-called loopholefree Bell test-remains an important outstanding goal for the physics community with strong implications for quantum technologies. We note that with our experiment, photons are the first physical system for which each of these three assumptions has been successfully addressed, albeit in different experiments. This represents promise for practical applications like one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution [11], and in an additional test, we also demonstrate that our experimental apparatus is capable of implementing this protocol on both sides.
The Bell test is one of the most important tools in quantum information science. On the one hand, it enables fundamental tests of the basic physics laws of nature, and on the other hand, it can also be applied in a variety of device-independent tasks such as quantum key distribution and random number generation. In practice, loopholes existing in experimental demonstrations of Bell tests may affect the validity of the conclusions. In this work, we focus on the randomness (freewill) loophole and investigate the randomness requirement in a well-known Bell test, the Clauser-Horne test, under various conditions. We explicitly bound the Bell value for all local hidden variable models by optimizing over all classical strategies exploiting the knowledge of the partially random inputs. Our result thus provides input randomness requirements on the Clauser-Horne test under varieties of practical scenarios. The employed analysis technique can also be generalized to other Bell inequalities.