Bell tests are of profound statistical nature. Besides physical considerations, the proper understanding of their implications should involve detailed statistical analyses. In this regard, recent works have shown that their consequences and interpretations depend on the probability space adopted. Some other recent works have also shown that generalized measurements may allow to further exploit the statistics of Bell-like tests. Following these ideas, in this work we show that one and the same experimental arrangement can provide a practical scheme valid for two very different probability spaces. Moreover, we show that this allows the introduction of novel Bell tests that are not possible in more standard approaches.
Bell tests are of profound statistical nature. Besides physical considerations, the proper understanding of their implications should involve detailed statistical analyses. In this regard, recent works have shown that their consequences and interpretations depend on the probability space adopted. Some other recent works have also shown that generalized measurements may allow to further exploit the statistics of Bell-like tests. Following these ideas, in this work we show that one and the same experimental arrangement can provide a practical scheme valid for two very different probability spaces. Moreover, we show that this allows the introduction of novel Bell tests that are not possible in more standard approaches.
Introduction Annus mirabilis 1964 1964 was a wonderful year for physics. In this annus mirabilis, summarising and simplifying a little, the quark model was proposed by Gell-Mann and Zweig and charm and colour properties were introduced, Higgs published his work on the scalar boson, the _ boson and CP violation were discovered, cosmic background radiation was identified and, finally, Bell inequalities were suggested. Most of these works were later subjects of a Nobel prize. Unluckily John Bell left us too early for this achievement, but, at least in my opinion, his work [1] is probably the most fruitful among all these huge advances, since now we can recognise that it was the root of a fundamental change in our vision of the physical world, providing, on one hand, the possibility of a test of quantum mechanics against a whole class of theories (substantially all the theories that we could define as “classical”) and, on the other hand, introducing a clear notion of quantum nonlocality that represents not only a challenge in understanding quantum mechanics, but also one of the most important resources paving the way to quantum technologies that were developed in the last decades based on the quantum correlations discussed in the Bell paper. In the following we will present the experimental progress in testing Bell inequalities. Rather amazingly even 50 years after Bell's paper, a conclusive test of his proposal is still missing [2, 3]. Nevertheless, huge progress has been achieved with respect to the first experiments.We will discuss these developments and the remaining problems for a conclusive test of Bell inequalities in detail. The Bell Inequalities, Their Hypotheses and the Experimental Loopholes In order to understand the experimental difficulties in achieving a final test of Bell inequalities, let us analyse a little how these inequalities are derived and the explicit and implicit hypotheses they contain. The proof of Bell inequalities usually starts by considering two separated subsystems of an entangled state, which are addressed to two independent measurement apparatuses measuring the expectation values of two dichotomic observables, Aa and B b . a, b are two parameters describing the settings of the measuring apparatus A and B , respectively.
Extensive experimental tests of the Bell inequality have been conducted over time and the test results are viewed as a testimony to quantum mechanics. In considering the close tie between quantum mechanics and statistical theory, this paper identifies the mistake in previous statistical explanation and uses an elegant statistical approach to derive general formulas for two-particle Bell tests, without invoking any wavefunctions. The results show that, for the special case where the spins/polarizations are in the same, opposite, or perpendicular directions, the general formulas derived in this paper convert to quantum predictions, which are confirmed by numerous experiments. The paper also investigates the linkages between the statistical and quantum predictions and finds that vector decomposition and probability law are at the heart of both approaches. Based on this finding, the paper explains statistically why the local hidden variable theory fails the Bell tests. The paper has important implications for quantum computing, quantum theory in general, and the role of randomism and realism in physics.
Bipartite quantum entangled systems can exhibit measurement correlations that violate Bell inequalities, revealing the profoundly counter-intuitive nature of the physical universe. These correlations reflect the impossibility of constructing a joint probability distribution for all values of all the different properties observed in Bell inequality tests. Physically, the impossibility of measuring such a distribution experimentally, as a set of relative frequencies, is due to the quantum back-action of projective measurements. Weakly coupling to a quantum probe, however, produces minimal back-action, and so enables a weak measurement of the projector of one observable, followed by a projective measurement of a noncommuting observable. By this technique it is possible to empirically measure weak-valued probabilities for all of the values of the observables relevant to a Bell test. The marginals of this joint distribution, which we experimentally determine, reproduces all of the observable quantum statistics including a violation of the Bell inequality, which we independently measure. This is possible because our distribution, like the weak values for projectors on which it is built, is not constrained to the interval [0,1]. It was first pointed out by Feynman that, for explaining singlet-state correlations within ``a [local] hidden variable view of nature \dots{} everything works fine if we permit negative probabilities.'' However, there are infinitely many such theories. Our method, involving ``weak-valued probabilities,'' singles out a unique set of probabilities, and moreover does so empirically.
All experimental tests of Bell-type inequalities and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger setups rely on the separate and successive measurement of the terms involved. We discuss possibilities of experimental setups to measure all relevant terms simultaneously in a single experiment and find this to be impossible. One reason is the lack of multi-partite states which are unique in the sense that a measurement of some observable on one particle fixes the value of the corresponding observables of the other particles as well.
Bipartite quantum entangled systems can exhibit measurement correlations that violate Bell inequalities, revealing the profoundly counter-intuitive nature of the physical universe. These correlations reflect the impossibility of constructing joint probability distribution for all values of all the different properties observed in Bell inequality tests. Physically, the impossibility of measuring such distribution experimentally, as set of relative frequencies, is due to the quantum back-action of projective measurements. Weakly coupling to quantum probe, however, produces minimal back-action, and so enables weak measurement of the projector of one observable, followed by projective measurement of non-commuting observable. By this technique it is possible to empirically measure probabilities for all of the values of the observables relevant to Bell test. The marginals of this joint distribution, which we experimentally determine, reproduces all of the observable quantum statistics including violation of the Bell inequality, which we independently measure. This is possible because our distribution, like the weak values for projectors on which it is built, is not constrained to the interval [0, 1]. It was first pointed out by Feynman that, for explaining singlet-state correlations within a [local] hidden variable view of nature ... everything works fine if we permit negative probabilities. However, there are infinitely many such theories. Our method, involving weak-valued singles out unique set of probabilities, and moreover does so empirically.