We reply to the Comments by Kupczynski and Lambare on our recent paper [], questioning our claims on the implications on quantum mechanics interpretations (and alternative theories) generated by the results of a recent experiment [] demonstrating the possibility of measuring the entire Bell parameter on a single entangled pair.
Genovese and Piacentini [] claim that, in a recent experiment [S. Virzì , ], the Bell parameter was measured on a single pair of photons, thus challenging several conclusions and discussions on the meaning of Bell inequalities as well as certain quantum mechanical interpretations. We explain that the parameter measured in the experiment of Virzì is not the Bell parameter S , which has been discussed and estimated in many loophole-free tests. Therefore, this experiment neither challenges our understanding of Bell tests nor allows having doubts about Bohr complementarity and contextuality.
In a recent article [], Genovese and Piacentini analyzed recent experiments measuring what they call “the entire Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) parameter.” They claimed those experiments may have implications for interpreting loophole-free tests of the Bell-CHSH inequality. We explain that the Bell-CHSH inequality is not based on the entire Bell parameter, so these experiments are unrelated to their empirical tests and cannot close any eventual loopholes that might still persist. We point out that the physical meaning of these new experiments measuring the entire Bell parameter could be interpreted differently.
Bell inequalities represent a milestone for contemporary physics, both for quantum foundation investigations and technological applications (e.g., quantum communication and entanglement certification). Although loophole-free tests have been recently performed, a strong debate is still ongoing on the actual meaning of Bell inequality tests, for example, on the possible additional hypotheses and eventual loopholes to be included in Bell's theorem, as well as on the implications for certain interpretations of quantum mechanics. A recent work [S. Virzì , ] challenges some of the statements appeared in this debate, achieving an experimental estimation of the entire Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (Bell-CHSH) parameter from a single entangled pair owing to a weak-interaction-based measurement approach. Here, we analyze the implications of this result for quantum mechanics foundations investigation, illustrating how it can tackle some of the aforementioned interpretations of Bell inequality tests and, more in general, of quantum mechanics itself.
In Phys. Rev. A 101, 022117 (2020), it was argued that Bell inequalities are based on classical not quantum physics, and, hence, their violation in experiments provides no support for the claimed existence of peculiar nonlocal and superluminal influences in the real (quantum) world. This Reply to Lambare's Comment, Phys. Rev. A 104, 066201 (2021), on that paper seeks to clarify some issues related to the correct use of Hilbert space quantum mechanics for identifying the microscopic causes of later macroscopic measurement outcomes, a matter not properly addressed by Bell, who used classical hidden variables in place of the Hilbert subspaces (equivalently, their projectors) employed by von Neumann in Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.