The categorization of quantum states for composite systems as either separable or entangled, or alternatively as Bell local or Bell non-local states based on local hidden variable theory is outlined, focusing on simple bipartite systems. The significance of states demonstrating Bell non-locality for settling the long standing controversy between the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum measurement process involving “collapse of the wave-function” and the alternative interpretation based on pre-existing hidden variables is emphasized. Although experiments demonstrating violations of Bell locality in microscopic systems have now been carried out, there is current interest in finding Bell non-locality in quantum systems on a macroscopic scale, since this is a regime where a classical hidden variable theory might still apply. Progress towards finding macroscopic quantum states that violate Bell inequalities is reviewed. A new test for Bell non-locality that applies when the sub-system measured quantities are spin components with large outcomes is described, and applied to four mode systems of identical massive bosons in Bose-Einstein condensates.
The categorization of quantum states for composite systems as either separable or entangled, or alternatively as Bell local or Bell non-local states based on local hidden variable theory is outlined, focusing on simple bipartite systems. The significance of states demonstrating Bell non-locality for settling the long standing controversy between the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum measurement process involving “collapse of the wave-function” and the alternative interpretation based on pre-existing hidden variables is emphasized. Although experiments demonstrating violations of Bell locality in microscopic systems have now been carried out, there is current interest in finding Bell non-locality in quantum systems on a macroscopic scale, since this is a regime where a classical hidden variable theory might still apply. Progress towards finding macroscopic quantum states that violate Bell inequalities is reviewed. A new test for Bell non-locality that applies when the sub-system measured quantities are spin components with large outcomes is described, and applied to four mode systems of identical massive bosons in Bose-Einstein condensates.
Abstract These two accompanying papers are concerned with two mode entanglement for systems of identical massive bosons and the relationship to spin squeezing and other quantum correlation effects. Entanglement is a key quantum feature of composite systems in which the probabilities for joint measurements on the composite sub-systems are no longer determined from measurement probabilities on the separate sub-systems. There are many aspects of entanglement that can be studied. This two-part review focuses on the meaning of entanglement, the quantum paradoxes associated with entangled states, and the important tests that allow an experimentalist to determine whether a quantum state—in particular, one for massive bosons is entangled. An overall outcome of the review is to distinguish criteria (and hence experiments) for entanglement that fully utilize the symmetrization principle and the super-selection rules that can be applied to bosonic massive particles. In the first paper (I), the background is given for the meaning of entanglement in the context of systems of identical particles. For such systems, the requirement is that the relevant quantum density operators must satisfy the symmetrization principle and that global and local super-selection rules prohibit states in which there are coherences between differing particle numbers. The justification for these requirements is fully discussed. In the second quantization approach that is used, both the system and the sub-systems are modes (or sets of modes) rather than particles, particles being associated with different occupancies of the modes. The definition of entangled states is based on first defining the non-entangled states—after specifying which modes constitute the sub-systems. This work mainly focuses on the two mode entanglement for massive bosons, but is put in the context of tests of local hidden variable theories, where one may not be able to make the above restrictions. The review provides the detailed arguments necessary for the conclusions of a recent paper, where the question of how to rigorously demonstrate the entanglement of a two-mode Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) has been examined. In the accompanying review paper (II), we consider spin squeezing and other tests for entanglement that have been proposed for two-mode bosonic systems. We apply the approach of review (I) to determine which tests, and which modifications of the tests, are useful for detecting entanglement in massive bosonic (BEC), as opposed to photonic, systems. Several new inequalities are derived, a theory for the required two-mode interferometry is presented, and key experiments to date are analyzed.
It is one of the most remarkable features of quantum physics that measurements on spatially separated systems cannot always be described by a locally causal theory. In such a theory, the outcomes of local measurements are determined in advance solely by some unknown (or hidden) variables and the choice of local measurements. Correlations that are allowed within the framework of a locally causal theory are termed classical. Typically, the fact that quantum mechanics does not always result in classical correlations is revealed by the violation of Bell inequalities, which are constraints that have to be satisfied by any classical correlations. It has been known for a long time that entanglement is necessary to demonstrate nonclassical correlations, and hence a Bell inequality violation. However, since some entangled quantum states are known to admit explicit locally causal models, the exact role of entanglement in Bell inequality violation has remained obscure. This thesis provides both a comprehensive review on these issues as well as a report on new discoveries made to clarify the relationship between entanglement and Bell inequality violation. In particular, within the framework of a standard Bell experiment, i.e., a Bell inequality test that is directly performed on a single copy of a quantum state r, we have derived two algorithms to determine, respectively, a lower bound and an upper bound on the strength of correlations that r can offer for any given Bell inequality. Both of these algorithms make use convex optimization techniques in the form of a semidefinite program. By examples, we show that these algorithms can often be used in tandem, in conjunction with convexity arguments, to determine if a quantum state can offer nonclassical correlations and hence violates a given Bell inequality. On the other hand, since a standard Bell experiment typically involves measurements over many copies of the quantum systems, we have also investigated the possibility of enhancing the strength of nonclassical correlation by, instead, performing collective measurements on multiple copies of the quantum systems. Our findings show that even without postselection, such joint measurements may also lead to stronger nonclassical correlations, and hence a better Bell inequality violation. Meanwhile, previous studies have indicated that entangled state admitting locally causal models may still lead to observable nonclassical correlations if, prior to a standard Bell experiment, the state is subjected to some appropriate local preprocessing. This phenomenon of hidden nonlocality was discovered more than a decade ago, but to date, it is still not known if all entangled states can demonstrate nonclassical correlations through these more sophisticated Bell experiments. A key result in this thesis then consists of showing that for all bipartite entangled states, observable nonclassical correlations, in the form of a Bell-CHSH inequality violation, can indeed be derived if we allow both local preprocessing and the usage of shared ancillary state which by itself does not violate the Bell-CHSH inequality. This establishes a kind of equivalence between bipartite entanglement and states that cannot be simulated by classical correlations. In summary, for a standard Bell experiment where no local preprocessing on a quantum state r is allowed, we have provided two algorithms that can be used in tandem to determine if r can be simulated by a locally causal theory, whereas in the scenario where local preprocessing is allowed, we have demonstrated that bipartite entangled states are precisely those which cannot always be simulated classically.
Quantum non-locality tests have been of interest since the original EPR paper. The present paper discusses whether the CGLMP (Bell) inequalities obtained by Collins et al are possible tests for showing that quantum theory is not underpinned by local hidden variable theory (LHVT). It is found by applying Fine's theorem that the CGLMP approach involves a LHVT for the probabilities associated with measurements on two observables (each from one of the two sub-subsystems), even though the underlying probabilities for measurements of all four observables involve a hidden variable theory which is not required to be local. Although the CGLMP inequalities involve probabilities for measurements of one observable per sub-system and are compatible with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, there is no unambiguous quantum measurement process linked to the probabilities in the CGLMP inequalities. Quantum measurements corresponding to the different classical measurements that give the same CGLMP probability are found to yield different CGLMP probabilities. However, violation of a CGLMP inequality based on any one of the possible quantum measurement sequences is sufficient to show that the Collins et al LHVT does not predict the same results as quantum theory. This is found to occur for a state considered in their paper - though for observables whose physical interpretation is unclear. In spite of the problems of comparing the HVT inequalities with quantum expressions, it is concluded that the CGLMP inequalities are indeed suitable for ruling out local hidden variable theories. The state involved could apply to a macroscopic system, so the CGLMP Bell inequalities are important for finding cases of macroscopic violations of Bell locality. Possible experiments in double-well Bose condensates involving atoms with two hyperfine components are discussed.
Abstract In this paper we consider the description by a general Bell-type non-local hidden variable theory of bipartite quantum states with two observables per sub-system. We derive Bell inequalities of the Collins-Gisin.-Liden-Massar-Popescu type which involve combinations of the probabilities of related outcomes for measurements for the four pairs of sub-system observables. It is shown that the corresponding quantum theory expressions violate the Bell inequalities in the case of the maximally entangled state of the bipartitite system. The CHSH Bell inequality is also derived from this general CGLMP Bell-type non-local hidden variable theory. This shows that quantum theory can not be underpinned by a Bell-type non-local hidden variable theory. So as a general Bell-type local hidden variable theory has already been shown to conflict with quantum theory, it follows that quantum theory can not be understood in terms of any CGLMP Bell-type hidden variable theory—local or non-local.
Starting from the late 60’s many experiments have been performed to verify the violation Bell’s inequality by Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) type correlations. The idea of these experiments being that: (i) Bell’s inequality is a consequence of locality, hence its experimental violation is an indication of non locality; (ii) this violation is a typical quantum phenomenon because any classical system making local choices (either deterministic or random) will produce correlations satisfying this inequality. Both statements (i) and (ii) have been criticized by quantum probability on theoretical grounds (not discussed in the present paper) and the experiment discussed below has been devised to support these theoretical arguments. We emphasize that the goal of our experiment is not to reproduce classically the EPR correlations but to prove that there exist perfectly local classical dynamical systems violating Bell’s inequality. The conclusions of the present experiment are: no contradiction between quantum theory and locality can be deduced from the violation of Bell’s inequality. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory becomes quite reasonable and not metaphyisic if interpreted at the light of the chameleon effect. One can realize quantum entanglement by classical computers. In section (7) we prove that our experiment also provides a classical analogue of the type of logical (i.e. independent of statistics) incompatibilities pointed out by Greenberger, Home and Zeilinger. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Bell's theorem is 50 years old. Still there is a controversy about its implications. Much of it has its roots in confusion regarding the premises from which the theorem can be derived. Some claim that a derivation of Bell's inequalities requires just locality assumption, and nothing more. Violations of the inequalities are then interpreted as ``nonlocality'' or ``quantum nonlocality''. We show that such claims are unfounded and that every derivation of Bell's inequalities requires a premise -- in addition to locality and freedom of choice -- which is either assumed tacitly, or unconsciously, or is embedded in a single compound condition (like Bell's ``local causality''). The premise is equivalent to the assumption of existence of additional variables which do not appear in the quantum formalism (in form of determinism, or joint probability for outcomes of all conceivable measurements, or ``additional causes`'', or ``hidden variables'', ``complete description of the state'' or counterfactual definiteness, etc.). A certain irony is that perhaps the main message of violation of Bell's inequalities is that our notion of locality should be based on an operationally well-defined no-signalling condition, rather than on local causality.