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arXiv:1503.07573 · Physical Review A

Analysis of coincidence-time loopholes in experimental Bell tests

Bradley Christensen, Alexander D. Hill, Paul G. Kwiat, Emanuel H. Knill, Sae Woo Nam, Kevin J. Coakley, Scott Glancy, Lynden K. Shalm, Y. Zhang

Published Sep 28, 2015• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We apply a distance-based Bell-test analysis method [E. Knill et al., Phys. Rev. A 91, 032105 (2015)] to three experimental data sets where conventional analyses failed or required additional assumptions. The first is produced from a classical source exploiting a ``coincidence-time loophole'' for which standard analysis falsely shows a Bell violation. The second is from a source previously shown to violate a Bell inequality; the distance-based analysis agrees with the previous results but with fewer assumptions. The third data set does not show a violation with standard analysis despite the high source quality, but is shown to have a strong violation with the distance-based analysis method.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.032130

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We apply a distance-based Bell-test analysis method [E. Knill et al., Phys. Rev. A 91, 032105 (2015)] to three experimental data sets where conventional analyses failed or required additional assumptions. The first is produced from a classical source exploiting a ``coincidence-time loophole'' for which standard analysis falsely shows a Bell violation. The second is from a source previously shown to violate a Bell inequality; the distance-based analysis agrees with the previous results but with fewer assumptions. The third data set does not show a violation with standard analysis despite the high source quality, but is shown to have a strong violation with the distance-based analysis method.
This paper analyzes effects of time dependence in the Bell inequality. A generalized inequality is derived for the case when coincidence and non-coincidence (and hence whether or not a pair contributes to the actual data) is controlled by timing that depends on the detector settings. Needless to say, this inequality is violated by quantum mechanics and could be violated by experimental data provided that the loss of measurement pairs through failure of coincidence is small enough, but the quantitative bound is more restrictive in this case than in the previously analyzed "efficiency loophole".
This paper analyzes effects of time‐dependence in the Bell inequality. A generalized inequality is derived for the case when coincidence and non‐coincidence [and hence whether or not a pair contributes to the actual data] is controlled by timing that depends on the detector settings. Needless to say, this inequality is violated by quantum mechanics and could be violated by experimental data provided that the loss of measurement pairs through failure of coincidence is small enough, but the quantitative bound is more restrictive in this case than in the previously analyzed “efficiency loophole.”
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.
Data sets produced by three different Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm (EPRB) experiments are tested against the hypothesis that the statistics of this data is described by quantum theory. Although these experiments generate data that violate Bell inequalities for suitable choices of the time-coincidence window, the analysis shows that it is highly unlikely that these data sets are compatible with the quantum theoretical description of the EPRB experiment, suggesting that the popular statements that EPRB experiments agree with quantum theory lack a solid scientific basis and that more precise experiments are called for.
Data sets produced by three different Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm (EPRB) experiments are tested against the hypothesis that the statistics of this data is described by quantum theory. Although these experiments generate data that violate Bell inequalities for suitable choices of the time-coincidence window, the analysis shows that it is highly unlikely that these data sets are compatible with the quantum theoretical description of the EPRB experiment, suggesting that the popular statements that EPRB experiments agree with quantum theory lack a solid scientific basis and that more precise experiments are called for.
The coincidence-time loophole was identified by Larsson & Gill (Europhys. Lett. 67, 707 (2004)); a concrete model that exploits this loophole has recently been described by De Raedt et al. (Found. Phys., to appear). It is emphasized here that De Raedt et al.'s model is experimentally testable. De Raedt et al.'s model also introduces contextuality in a novel and classically more natural way than the use of contextual particle properties, by introducing a probabilistic model of a limited set of degrees of freedom of the measurement apparatus, so that it can also be seen as a random field model. Even though De Raedt et al.'s model may well contradict detailed Physics, it nonetheless provides a way to simulate the logical operation of elements of a quantum computer, and may provide a way forward for more detailed random field models.