In most Bell tests, the measurement settings are specially chosen so that the maximal quantum violations of the Bell inequalities can be detected, or at least, the violations are strong enough to be observed. Such choices can usually associate the corresponding Bell operators to a kind of effective observables, called pseudo Pauli operators, providing us a more intuitive understanding of Bell nonlocality in some sense. Based on that, a more general quantum-to-classical approach for the constructions of Bell inequalities is developed. Using this approach, one can not only derive several kinds of well-known Bell inequalities, but also explore many new ones. Besides, we show that some quadratic Bell inequalities can be induced from the uncertainty relations of pseudo Pauli operators as well, which may shed new light on the study of uncertainty relations of some nonlocal observables.
In most Bell tests, the measurement settings are specially chosen so that the maximal quantum violations of the Bell inequalities can be detected, or at least, the violations are strong enough to be observed. Such choices can usually associate the corresponding Bell operators to a kind of effective observables, called pseudo Pauli operators, providing us a more intuitive understanding of Bell nonlocality in some sense. Based on that, a more general quantum-to-classical approach for the constructions of Bell inequalities is developed. Using this approach, one can not only derive several kinds of well-known Bell inequalities, but also explore many new ones. Besides, we show that some quadratic Bell inequalities can be induced from the uncertainty relations of pseudo Pauli operators as well, which may shed new light on the study of uncertainty relations of some nonlocal observables.
Bell inequalities play a central role in the study of quantum nonlocality and entanglement, with many applications in quantum information. Despite the huge literature on Bell inequalities, it is not easy to find a clear conceptual answer to what a Bell inequality is, or a clear guiding principle as to how they may be derived. In this paper, we introduce a notion of logical Bell inequality which can be used to systematically derive testable inequalities for a very wide variety of situations. There is a single clear conceptual principle, based on purely logical consistency conditions, which underlies our notion of logical Bell inequalities. We show that in a precise sense, all Bell inequalities can be taken to be of this form. Our approach is very general. It applies directly to any family of sets of commuting observables. Thus it covers not only the n-partite scenarios to which Bell inequalities are standardly applied, but also Kochen-Specker configurations, and many other examples. There is much current work on experimental tests for contextuality. Our approach directly yields, in a systematic fashion, testable inequalities for a very general notion of contextuality. There has been much work on obtaining proofs of Bell's theorem ``without inequalities'' or ``without probabilities.'' These proofs are seen as being in a sense more definitive and logically robust than the inequality-based proofs. On the hand, they lack the fault-tolerant aspect of inequalities. Our approach reconciles these aspects, and in fact shows how the logical robustness can be converted into systematic, general derivations of inequalities with provable violations. Moreover, the kind of strong non-locality or contextuality exhibited by the GHZ argument or by Kochen-Specker configurations can be shown to lead to maximal violations of the corresponding logical Bell inequalities. Thus the qualitative and the quantitative aspects are combined harmoniously.
The causal structure of any experiment implies restrictions on the observable correlations between measurement outcomes, which are different for experiments exploiting classical, quantum, or post-quantum resources. In the study of Bell nonlocality, these differences have been explored in great detail for more and more involved causal structures. Here, we go in the opposite direction and identify the simplest causal structure which exhibits a separation between classical, quantum, and post-quantum correlations. It arises in the so-called Instrumental scenario, known from classical causal models. We derive inequalities for this scenario and show that they are closely related to well-known Bell inequalities, such as the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality, which enables us to easily identify their classical, quantum, and post-quantum bounds as well as strategies violating the first two. The relations that we uncover imply that the quantum or post-quantum advantages witnessed by the violation of our Instrumental inequalities are not fundamentally different from those witnessed by the violations of standard inequalities in the usual Bell scenario. However, non-classical tests in the Instrumental scenario require fewer input choices than their Bell scenario counterpart, which may have potential implications for device-independent protocols.
Bell inequalities reveal the fundamentally nonlocal character of quantum mechanics. In this regard, one of the interesting problems is to explore all possible Bell inequalities that demonstrate a gap between local and nonlocal quantum behaviour. This is useful for the geometric characterisation of the set of nonlocal correlations achievable within quantum theory. Moreover, it provides a systematic way to construct Bell inequalities that are tailored to specific quantum information processing tasks. This characterisation is well understood in the simplest (2,2,2) scenario, namely two parties performing two binary outcome measurements. However, beyond this setting, relatively few Bell inequalities are known, and the situation becomes particularly scarce in scenarios involving a greater number of outcomes. Here, we consider the (2,2,3) scenario, or two parties performing two three-outcome measurements, and characterise all Bell inequalities that can arise from the simplest sum-of-squares decomposition and are maximally violated by the maximally entangled state of local dimension three. We then utilise them to self-test this state, along with a class of three-outcome measurements.
Bell's Inequalites structure can be considered in a logical-probabilistic framework, as outlined by Pitowsky [1], where the origin of the inequality was attributed to George Boole’s “conditions of possible experience”. The inequality has then been often renamed the Bell-Boole inequality. An interesting fact is that G. Boole’s method used to establish his probability inequalities stems directly from his mathematical treatment of logic using idempotent symbols (which he called “elective symbols”). The “Boolean Algebra” we consider today bears some major differences with Boole’s original method as thoroughly discussed by Hailperin [2].We proposed recently the “Eigenlogic” approach [3] where we translate Boole’s original logical method to linear algebra using idempotent and also unitary operators and outline the bridges to quantum theories in particular to quantum information [4]. Eigenlogic can thus be a framework for transposing logic in a quantum context, the probabilistic aspects are then simply derived by measurements on logical operators using the Born rule.Bell Inequalities (BI) can be expressed in an operator form where the measurement observables of an experiment are combined to form Bell operators, the outcomes are then derived by using the quantum mechanical mean value (again the Born rule). The popular form adapted for this method is the CHSH form of the BI for spin 1/2 particles or polarized photons with outcomes ±1. Using the isomorphism between idempotent and self-inverse unitary operators (Householder transform) the CHSH Bell operator transforms in Eigenlogic in a combination of idempotent operators from which by using the Born rule one gets the Fine inequality on probabilities.As stated by Khrennikov [5] the BI violation occurs only when incompatible (non-commuting) observables are used in the BI associated experiments. Particularly in the CHSH-BI experiments on an entangled state, mutually unbiased bases (MUB), representing maximally dissimilar contexts, lead to the maximum quantum violation represented by the number 2√2>2. This is the case for the couple of MUB (z,x) associated to Pauli spin operators σ_x and σ_z. In Eigenlogic these (z,x) contexts represent dual logical systems which are at interplay and have an original syntax-semantic interpretation [4]. It has to be outlined that in many quantum algorithms the MUB (z,x), linked by the Hadamard gate which represents the Fourier Transformation between the two bases, provides a quantum algorithmic advantage.The situations of the BI in the so called post-quantum regime are also analyzed by generalizing the concept of PR-Box which relates outputs (a,b) to inputs (x,y) in a two-party correlation by means of the logical equation: a⊕b=x∧y. Using Eigenlogic, families of boxes with all possible combinations of logical functions are analyzed through the equations: f(a,b)=g(x,y), where f and g correspond to the 16 different Boolean functions, giving 256 possible logical equations. The logical equations are transformed in logical operators and used to define the associated Bell operator. 16 cases of the PR-Box type (considering all the possible complementations of the variables a,b,x,y) violate the CHSH-BI maximally with the number 4>2√2 (Tsirelson’s bound). Another family of 32 logical cases gives a CHSH-BI violation of 3.33 also beyond the quantum limit; this is the case for the logical equation: a∨b=x∧y.[1] Pitowsky, I., George Boole’s ‘conditions of possible experience’ and the quantum puzzle. Brit. J. Phil. Sci., 45:95–125 (1994).[2] Hailperin, T. Boole’s Algebra isn’t Boolean algebra. A description using modern algebra, of what Boole really did create. Math. Mag. 54(4): 172–184 (1981).[3] Toffano, Z. Eigenlogic in the Spirit of George Boole. Log. Univers. 14, 175–207 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11787-020-00252-3[4] Toffano, Z.; Dubois, F. Adapting Logic to Physics: The Quantum-Like Eigenlogic Program. Entropy 2020, 22, 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/e22020139[5] Khrennikov, A. Contextuality, Complementarity, Signaling, and Bell Tests. Entropy 2022, 24, 1380. https://doi.org/10.3390/e24101380
The causal structure of any experiment implies restrictions on the observable correlations between measurement outcomes, which are different for experiments exploiting classical, quantum, or post-quantum resources. In the study of Bell nonlocality, these differences have been explored in great detail for more and more involved causal structures. Here, we go in the opposite direction and identify the simplest causal structure which exhibits a separation between classical, quantum, and post-quantum correlations. It arises in the so-called Instrumental scenario, known from classical causal models. We derive inequalities for this scenario and show that they are closely related to well-known Bell inequalities, such as the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality, which enables us to easily identify their classical, quantum, and post-quantum bounds as well as strategies violating the first two. The relations that we uncover imply that the quantum or post-quantum advantages witnessed by the violation of our Instrumental inequalities are not fundamentally different from those witnessed by the violations of standard inequalities in the usual Bell scenario. However, non-classical tests in the Instrumental scenario require fewer input choices than their Bell scenario counterpart, which may have potential implications for device-independent protocols.
Incompatibility of observables, or measurements, is one of the key features of quantum mechanics, related, among other concepts, to Heisenberg's uncertainty relations and Bell nonlocality. In this manuscript we show, however, that even though incompatible measurements are necessary for the violation of any Bell inequality, some relevant Bell-like inequalities may be obtained if compatibility relations are assumed between the local measurements of one (or more) of the parties. Hence, compatibility of measurements is not necessarily a drawback and may, however, be useful for the detection of Bell nonlocality and device-independent certification of entanglement.