There are bipartite quantum nonlocal correlations requiring very low detection efficiency to reach the loophole-free regime but that need too many measurement settings to be practical for actual experiments. This leads to the general problem of what can be concluded about loophole-free Bell nonlocality if only a random subset of these settings is tested. Here we develop a method to address this problem. We show that, in some cases, it is possible to detect loophole-free Bell nonlocality by testing only a small random fraction of the settings. The consequence is a higher detection efficiency. The method allows for the design of loophole-free Bell tests in which, given a quantum correlation that violates a Bell inequality, one can calculate the minimum fraction of contexts needed to reach the detection-loophole-free regime. The results also enforce a different way of thinking about how local realistic models or classical communication can be used to simulate quantum nonlocal correlations, as it shows that the amount of resources that are needed can be made arbitrarily large simply by considering more contexts.
There are bipartite quantum nonlocal correlations requiring very low detection efficiency to reach the loophole-free regime but that need too many measurement settings to be practical for actual experiments. This leads to the general problem of what can be concluded about loophole-free Bell nonlocality if only a random subset of these settings is tested. Here we develop a method to address this problem. We show that, in some cases, it is possible to detect loophole-free Bell nonlocality by testing only a small random fraction of the settings. The consequence is a higher detection efficiency. The method allows for the design of loophole-free Bell tests in which, given a quantum correlation that violates a Bell inequality, one can calculate the minimum fraction of contexts needed to reach the detection-loophole-free regime. The results also enforce a different way of thinking about how local realistic models or classical communication can be used to simulate quantum nonlocal correlations, as it shows that the amount of resources that are needed can be made arbitrarily large simply by considering more contexts.
Abstract One of the most striking features of quantum theory is that it allows spatially separated observers to share correlations that resist local-causal (classical) explanations, a phenomenon referred to as Bell nonlocality[1, 2]. Besides their foundational relevance, the nonlocal correlations enable distant observers to accomplish classically inconceivable information processing and cryptographic feats such as unconditionally secure device-independent key distribution schemes[3-5]. However, the distances over which nonlocal correlations can be realized in state-of-the-art Bell experiments remain severely limited owing to the high threshold efficiencies of the detectors and the fragility of the nonlocal correlations to experimental noise[6, 7]. Instead of looking for quantum strategies with marginally lower threshold requirements, we exploit the properties of loophole-free nonlocal correlations, which are experimentally attainable today, albeit at short distances, to extend them over arbitrarily large distances. Specifically, we consider Bell experiments wherein the spatially separated parties randomly choose the location of their measurement devices in addition to their measurement settings. We demonstrate that when devices close to the entanglement source are perfect and witness extremal loophole-free nonlocal correlations, such correlations can be extended to devices placed arbitrarily far from the source, with almost zero detection efficiency and visibility. To accommodate imperfections close to the source, we demonstrate a specific analytical tradeoff: the higher the loophole-free nonlocality close to the source, the lower the threshold requirements away from the source. We utilize this analytical tradeoff paired with optimal quantum strategies to estimate the critical requirements of a measurement device placed away from the source in the simplest non-trivial scenario and formulate a versatile numerical method applicable to generic network scenarios. Our results demonstrate that the properties of already feasible short-distance loophole-free nonlocal correlations can be exploited to extend them to longer distances, enabling device-independent information processing and cryptography fuelled by long-distance loophole-free nonlocal correlations to become near-term commonplace technologies.
Bell inequality tests where the detection efficiency is below a certain threshold ηcrit can be simulated with local hidden-variable models. Here, we introduce a method to identify Bell tests requiring low ηcrit and relatively low dimension d of the local quantum systems. The method has two steps. First, we show a family of bipartite Bell inequalities for which, for correlations produced by maximally entangled states, ηcrit can be upper bounded by a function of some invariants of graphs, and use it to identify correlations that require small ηcrit . We present examples in which, for maximally entangled states, ηcrit≤0.516 for d=16 , ηcrit≤0.407 for d=28 , and ηcrit≤0.326 for d=32 . We also show evidence that the upper bound for ηcrit can be lowered down to 0.415 for d=16 and present a method to make the upper bound of ηcrit arbitrarily small by increasing the dimension and the number of settings. All these upper bounds for ηcrit are valid (as it is the case in the literature) assuming no noise. The second step is based on the observation that, using the initial state and measurement settings identified in the first step, we can construct Bell inequalities with smaller ηcrit and better noise robustness. For that, we use a modified version of Gilbert's algorithm that takes advantage of the automorphisms of the graphs used in the first step. We illustrate its power by explicitly developing an example in which ηcrit is 12.38% lower and the required visibility is 14.62% lower than the upper bounds obtained in the first step. The tools presented here may allow for developing high-dimensional loophole-free Bell tests and loophole-free Bell nonlocality over long distances.
Abstract Bell’s inequality provides a remarkable way to test the consistency between quantum mechanics and classic local realistic theory. However, experimental demonstrations of the loophole-free Bell test are challenging and only recently have been demonstrated with bipartite systems. A central obstacle for the photonic system is that the sampling efficiency, including the collection and detection efficiencies, must be above a certain threshold. We here generalize two-particle Eberhard’s inequality to the n-particle systems and derive a Bell-type inequality for multi-particle systems, which significantly relaxes this threshold. Furthermore, an experimental proposal to achieve a multi-partite Bell test without the fair sampling assumption is presented for the case of three particles. For any given value of the sampling efficiency, we give the optimal configurations for actual implementation, the optimal state, the maximum background noise that the system can tolerate, and the lowest fidelity of the quantum state. We believe our work can serve as a recipe for experimentalists planning to violate local realism using a multi-partite quantum state without the sampling loophole.
Abstract Imperfect detection efficiency remains one of the major obstacles in achieving loophole-free Bell tests over long distances. At the same time, the challenge of establishing a common reference frame for measurements becomes more pronounced as the separation between parties increases. In this work, we tackle both of these issues by examining the impact of limited detection efficiency on the probability of Bell inequality violation with Haar random measurement settings. We derive analytical lower bounds on the violation probability for a two-qubit maximally entangled state, which is tight for correlation inequalities and perfect detection efficiencies. We further investigate it numerically for more qubits and settings using two detection efficiency models and an original method based on the linear programming. Beyond that, we show that the so-called typicality of Bell inequality violation, i.e. almost certain violation of local realism with sufficiently many particles or random measurement directions, holds even if the detection efficiency is limited. Our findings reveal that increasing the number of measurement settings can compensate for efficiency losses above the critical threshold. Additionally, we determine critical detection efficiencies for both two-party and three-party scenarios. For two parties, we recover previously established results, while for three parties, we derive a symmetric critical efficiency of η crit = 2 / 3 for the W and GHZ states within the binning model. In cases involving the no-detection outcome, we present a modified inequality using a pair of orthogonal observables for each party with η crit ≈ 0.7208 , which is notably less than 0.75 for the GHZ state. These results offer deeper insights into the limitations and possibilities for certifying non-locality in the presence of limited detection efficiency, shedding light on its robustness in practical Bell tests.
Loophole-free quantum nonlocality often demands experiments with high complexity (defined by all parties' settings and outcomes) and multiple efficient detectors. Here, we identify the fundamental efficiency and complexity thresholds for quantum steering using two-qubit entangled states. Remarkably, it requires only one photon detector on the untrusted side, with efficiency ε>1/X, where X≥2 is the number of settings on that side. This threshold applies to all pure entangled states, in contrast to analogous Bell-nonlocality tests, which require almost unentangled states to be loss-tolerant. We confirm these predictions in a minimal-complexity (X=2 for the untrusted party and a single three-outcome measurement for the trusted party), detection-loophole-free photonic experiment with $ε= (51.6 \pm 0.4)\% $.
Bell's theorem asserts that no local hidden variable theory can explain the predictions of quantum theory in an experiment where spacelike separated measurements are performed in distant laboratories. Loophole-free Bell tests performed in the last decade demonstrate Bell nonlocality as a property of Nature. However, the amount of nonlocality allowed in quantum theory is limited, compared to the sole restriction of no-signaling, meaning the impossibility of faster-than-light communication implied by special relativity. Information causality is a physical principle that generalizes no-signaling and is satisfied by quantum theory. It is based on the idea that shared quantum entanglement cannot enable a receiver to obtain more classical information than how much was sent by a distant sender. Remarkably, the principle was shown to imply the maximal quantum bound for the violation of the most well-known Bell inequality. The aim of this thesis is to widen our understanding of information causality and compare its predictions with other known outer approximations of the quantum set of correlations. We build upon the recent realization that most of the known consequences of information causality can be derived with a single copy of the shared systems, whereas before it was thought that many copies were necessary. We develop a novel optimization framework which bounds the possible violations of information causality by other sets of correlations, allowing us to certify when violations are not possible. We generalize the statement of information causality and reach a precise definition for the set of correlations satisfying this principle. We show that when searching for violations of information causality by physical theories, considering many copies is not necessary. Our aforementioned optimization framework approximates the information causality set from the outside. Conversely, we propose a different approach which allows us to approximate this set from the inside.