With the increased availability of quantum technological devices, it becomes more important to have tools to guarantee their correct nonclassical behavior. This is especially important for quantum networks, which constitute the platforms where multipartite cryptographic protocols will be implemented, and where guarantees of nonclassicality translate into security proofs. We derive linear and nonlinear Bell-like inequalities for networks, whose violation certifies the absence of a minimum number of classical sources in them. We do so, first, without assuming that nature is ultimately governed by quantum mechanics, providing a hierarchy interpolating between network nonlocality and full network nonlocality. Second we insert this assumption, which leads to results more amenable to certification in experiments.
With the increased availability of quantum technological devices, it becomes more important to have tools to guarantee their correct nonclassical behavior. This is especially important for quantum networks, which constitute the platforms where multipartite cryptographic protocols will be implemented, and where guarantees of nonclassicality translate into security proofs. We derive linear and nonlinear Bell-like inequalities for networks, whose violation certifies the absence of a minimum number of classical sources in them. We do so, first, without assuming that nature is ultimately governed by quantum mechanics, providing a hierarchy interpolating between network nonlocality and full network nonlocality. Second we insert this assumption, which leads to results more amenable to certification in experiments.
Quantum correlations in networks with independent sources have revealed novel forms of nonclassical behavior. While entanglement in the sources is a necessary ingredient, the role played by entanglement in the measurements remains largely unexplored. In particular, all existing demonstrations of full network nonlocality, certifying the nonclassicality of every source in the network, have relied on entangled measurements performed at a central node with no inputs. In this work, we construct an explicit strategy that does not rely on entangled measurements, yet still achieves full network nonlocality. Our approach is based on separable measurements augmented with bidirectional classical feedforward. We further show that this same class of measurements can give rise to another recently proposed form of network nonlocality, the minimal network nonclassicality, which ensures that the observed correlations cannot be attributed to any fixed subset of nonclassical sources within the network. Finally, building on a recently developed certification framework, we quantify the amount of device-independent randomness that can be extracted from full network nonlocal correlations under different measurement strategies. Beyond their foundational significance, our results also offer a practically attractive route toward experimental implementations of network nonlocality, as they remove the need for entangled measurements.
Bell scenarios are multipartite scenarios that exclude any signalling between parties. This leads to a strict hierarchy of classical, quantum, and non-signalling correlations in such scenarios. Here we consider a minimal relaxation of non-signalling: each party is allowed to receive a system once, implement any local intervention on it, and send out the resulting system once. Crucially, unlike Bell, we make no global assumption about causal relations between parties, e.g., they could be embedded in some exotic spacetime with indefinite causal order. We do make a causal assumption local to each party, i.e., the input received by it causally precedes the output it sends out. We then ask: Can we device-independently certify the nonclassicality of multipartite correlations in such scenarios, just as Bell inequality violations do so in Bell scenarios? A priori, this is not clear: without some assumptions on the underlying physics (e.g., non-signalling), parties can realize arbitrary correlations. We therefore make a minimal assumption of logical consistency on the underlying physics, i.e., it must be free of time-travel antinomies without imposing any restrictions on local interventions of the parties. We then define antinomicity as a device-independent notion of nonclassicality and prove a strict hierarchy between correlation sets based on their antinomicity. An antinomic correlation cannot be explained by a classical physical theory compatible with free local interventions on pain of logical contradictions in the theory. On the other hand, parties exchanging quantum systems can witness antinomicity while respecting logical consistency. Antinomicity reduces to Bell nonlocality for non-signalling parties. It also resolves a conceptual puzzle, namely, the failure of causal inequalities as witnesses of nonclassicality: antinomicity implies causal inequality violations, but not conversely.
Nonlocality arising in networks composed of several independent sources gives rise to phenomena radically different from that in standard Bell scenarios. Over the years, the phenomenon of network nonlocality in the entanglement-swapping scenario has been well investigated and demonstrated. However, it is known that violations of the so-called bilocality inequality used in previous experimental demonstrations cannot be used to certify the nonclassicality of their sources. This has put forward a stronger concept for nonlocality in networks, called full network nonlocality. Here, we experimentally observe full network nonlocal correlations in a network where the source-independence, locality, and measurement-independence loopholes are closed. This is ensured by employing two independent sources, rapid setting generation, and spacelike separations of relevant events. Our experiment violates known inequalities characterizing nonfull network nonlocal correlations by over 5 standard deviations, certifying the absence of classical sources in the realization.
Genuine multipartite nonlocality constitutes the strongest form of nonlocality, which is a key resource for many quantum communication and computational tasks. Standard methods for certifying nonlocality often require accessing contradictions in paradoxes or violations of Bell inequalities for composite quantum systems. However, the existing approaches become infeasible and cannot be adopted straightforwardly for a quantum network scenario, which usually possesses complex topological structure and many independent quantum sources. We have developed a simple and customizable strategy to achieve scalable, efficient, and flexible characterizations for various typical quantum network scenarios. The subtle something-versus-nothing contradiction in Hardy-type paradoxes without inequality allows us to substantiate genuine multipartite nonlocality in general quantum networks. Examples range from chain-type network to star-type network, with source connections of any pure entangled permutation symmetric multiqubit states, entangled two-qubit states, etc. The tools extend significantly our ability to certify genuine multipartite nonlocality in state-of-the-art network situations, and make a prominent step forward toward deeper understanding and practical depiction of quantum networks.
Abstract Recently, a class of innovative notions on quantum network nonlocality (QNN), called full quantum network nonlocality (FQNN), have been proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 128 010403 (2022). As the generalization of full network nonlocality (FNN), l-level quantum network nonlocality (l-QNN) was defined in arxiv. 2306.15717 quant-ph (2024). FQNN is a NN that can be generated only from a network with all sources being non-classical. This is beyond the existing standard network nonlocality, which may be generated from a network with only a non-classical source. One of the challenging tasks is to establish corresponding Bell-like inequalities to demonstrate the FQNN or l-QNN. Up to now, the inequality criteria for FQNN and l-QNN have only been established for star and chain networks. In this paper, we devote ourselves to establishing Bell-like inequalities for networks with more complex structures. Note that star and chain networks are special kinds of tree-shaped networks. We first establish the Bell-like inequalities for verifying l-QNN in k-forked tree-shaped networks. Such results generalize the existing inequalities for star and chain networks. Furthermore, we find the Bell-like inequality criteria for l-QNN for general acyclic and cyclic networks. Finally, we discuss the demonstration of l-QNN in the well-known butterfly networks.
Quantum correlation between nodes in a network which consist of several independent sources of entanglement and in multipartite entanglement systems are important for general understanding of the nature of nonlocality, quantum information processing and communication. In previous years, demonstrations of network nonlocality for bilocal scenarios have been in the focus. Yet, it has been found that the seminal protocols do not certify entanglement between end nodes, which otherwise require all sources in the network to be of nonlocal nature. This has motivated for development of even stronger concept, called full network nonlocality. Here, we experimentally demonstrate full network nonlocal correlations in a network. Specifically, we use two pairs of polarization entangled qubits created by two separate and independent entanglement sources and a partial Bell state measurement. Our results may pave the way for the use of nonlocality test in quantum communication protocols with a full network nonlocality certification.