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arXiv:2008.03317 · Physical Review Letters

Relativistic Bell Test within Quantum Reference Frames

Lucas F. Streiter, Flaminia Giacomini, Časlav Brukner

Published Jun 11, 2021• 34 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A still widely debated question in the field of relativistic quantum information is whether entanglement and the degree of violation of Bell's inequalities for massive relativistic particles are frame independent or not. At the core of this question is the effect that spin gets entangled with the momentum degree of freedom at relativistic velocities. Here, we show that Bell's inequalities for a pair of particles can be maximally violated in a special-relativistic regime, even without any postselection of the momentum of the particles. To this end, we use the methodology of quantum reference frames, which allows us to transform the problem to the rest frame of a particle, whose state can be in a superposition of relativistic momenta from the viewpoint of the laboratory frame. We show that, when the relative motion of two particles is noncollinear, the optimal measurements for violation of Bell's inequalities in the laboratory frame involve "coherent Wigner rotations." Moreover, the degree of violation of Bell's inequalities is independent of the choice of the quantum reference frame. Our results open up the possibility of extending entanglement-based quantum communication protocols to relativistic regimes.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.126.230403

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A still widely debated question in the field of relativistic quantum information is whether entanglement and the degree of violation of Bell's inequalities for massive relativistic particles are frame independent or not. At the core of this question is the effect that spin gets entangled with the momentum degree of freedom at relativistic velocities. Here, we show that Bell's inequalities for a pair of particles can be maximally violated in a special-relativistic regime, even without any postselection of the momentum of the particles. To this end, we use the methodology of quantum reference frames, which allows us to transform the problem to the rest frame of a particle, whose state can be in a superposition of relativistic momenta from the viewpoint of the laboratory frame. We show that, when the relative motion of two particles is noncollinear, the optimal measurements for violation of Bell's inequalities in the laboratory frame involve "coherent Wigner rotations." Moreover, the degree of violation of Bell's inequalities is independent of the choice of the quantum reference frame. Our results open up the possibility of extending entanglement-based quantum communication protocols to relativistic regimes.
We show that a pair of massive relativistic spin-1/2 particles prepared in a maximally entangled spin state in general is not capable of maximally violating the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) version of Bell's inequalities without a postselection of the particles' momenta, representing a major difference in relation to nonrelativistic systems. This occurs because the quantization axis of the measurements performed on each particle depends on the particle velocity, such that it is not possible to define a reduced density matrix for the particles' spin. We also show that the amount of violation of the CHSH inequality depends on the reference frame and that in some frames the inequality may not be violated.
One of the most fundamental phenomena of quantum physics is entanglement. It describes an inseparable connection between quantum systems, and properties thereof. In a quantum mechanical description even systems far apart from each other can share a common state. This entanglement of the subsystems, although arising from mathematical principles, is no mere abstract concept, but can be tested in experiment, and be utilized in modern quantum information theory procedures, such as quantum teleportation. In particular, entangled states play a crucial role in testing our understanding of reality, by violating Bell inequalities. While the role of entanglement is well studied in the realm of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, its significance in a relativistic quantum theory is a relatively new field of interest. In this work the consequences of a relativistic description of quantum entanglement are discussed. We analyze the representations of the symmetry groups of special relativity, i.e. of the Lorentz group, and the Poincaré group, on the Hilbert space of states. We describe how unitary, irreducible representations of the Poincaré group for massive spin 1/2 particles are constructed from representations of Wigner's little group. We then proceed to investigate the role of the Wigner rotations in the transformation of quantum states under a change of inertial reference frame. Considering different partitions of the Hilbert space of 2 particles, we find that the entanglement of the quantum states appears different in different inertial frames, depending on the form of the states, the chosen inertial frames, and the particular choice of partition. It is explained, how, despite of this, the maximally possible violation of Bell inequalities is frame independent, when using appropriate spin observables, which are related to the Pauli-Ljubanski vector, a Casimir operator of the Poincaré group.
We describe the spin and momentum degrees of freedom of a system of two massive spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ particles as a four-qubit system. Then we explicitly show how the entanglement changes between different partitions of the qubits, when considered by different inertial observers. Although the two particle entanglement corresponding to a partition into Alice's and Bob's subsystems is, as often stated in the literature, invariant under Lorentz boosts, the entanglement with respect to other partitions of the Hilbert space on the other hand, is not. It certainly does depend on the chosen inertial frame and on the initial state considered. The change of entanglement arises, because a Lorentz boost on the momenta of the particles causes a Wigner rotation of the spin, which in certain cases entangles the spin with the momentum states. We systematically investigate the situation for different classes of initial spin states and different partitions of the four-qubit space. Furthermore, we study the behavior of Bell inequalities for different observers and demonstrate how the maximally possible degree of violation, using the Pauli-Lubanski spin observable, can be recovered by any inertial observer.
In this paper, the Lorentz transformations of entangled Bell states with general momentum not necessarily orthogonal to the boost direction and spin are studied. We extend quantum correlations and Bell's inequality to the relativistic regime by considering normalized relativistic observables. It is shown that quantum information along the direction perpendicular to the boost is eventually lost, and Bell's inequality is not always violated for entangled states in special relativity. This could impose restrictions on certain quantum information processing, such as quantum cryptography using massive particles.
We formulate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) gedankenexperiment within the framework of relativistic quantum theory to analyze a situation in which measurements are performed by moving observers. We point out that under certain conditions the perfect anti-correlation of an EPR pair of spins in the same direction deteriorates in the moving observers' frame due to the Wigner rotation, and show that the degree of the violation of Bell's inequality prima facie decreases with increasing velocity of the observers if the directions of the measurement are fixed. However, this does not imply a breakdown of non-local correlation since the perfect anti-correlation is maintained in appropriately chosen different directions. When considering moving frames we must take account of this relativistic effect on the EPR correlation and on the violation of Bell's inequality for quantum communication.
In order to understand the characteristics of quantum entanglement of massive particles under Lorentz boost, we first introduce a relevant relativistic spin observable, and evaluate its expectation values for the Bell states under Lorentz boost. Then we show that maximal violation of the Bell's inequality can be achieved by properly adjusting the directions of the spin measurement even in a relativistically moving inertial frame. Based on this we infer that the entanglement information is preserved under Lorentz boost as a form of correlation information determined by the transformation characteristic of the Bell state in use.