Nonlocality can be witnessed either through Bell-inequality violations or through logical contradictions such as Hardy's paradox. In the bipartite two input two outcome scenario, these two routes have distinct geometric behavior: CHSH-maximal correlations are exposed points of the quantum set, whereas known Hardy-type self-testing correlations on the no-signaling boundary are non-exposed. Here we show that this bipartite intuition fails in the tripartite two input two outcome scenario. We study the tripartite instance of a multipartite Hardy-type paradox and prove that the correlation attaining the maximal Hardy success probability self-tests the Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger state and the associated measurements. Although this correlation lies on the no-signaling boundary, we show that it is an extremal and exposed point of the quantum correlation set. Moreover, it coincides with the correlation attaining the maximal violation of the Mermin inequality. Thus, in the tripartite GHZ scenario, the logical-paradox and Bell-inequality routes to nonlocality select the same exposed quantum boundary point. We also establish a robust version of the self-test, showing that small deviations from the ideal Hardy constraints imply quantitative closeness to the target state and measurements. Our results reveal a qualitative geometric difference between bipartite and tripartite Hardy-type nonlocality and suggest a broader investigation of exposedness for multipartite Hardy correlations in the multiparty setting.
Nonlocality can be witnessed either through Bell-inequality violations or through logical contradictions such as Hardy's paradox. In the bipartite two input two outcome scenario, these two routes have distinct geometric behavior: CHSH-maximal correlations are exposed points of the quantum set, whereas known Hardy-type self-testing correlations on the no-signaling boundary are non-exposed. Here we show that this bipartite intuition fails in the tripartite two input two outcome scenario. We study the tripartite instance of a multipartite Hardy-type paradox and prove that the correlation attaining the maximal Hardy success probability self-tests the Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger state and the associated measurements. Although this correlation lies on the no-signaling boundary, we show that it is an extremal and exposed point of the quantum correlation set. Moreover, it coincides with the correlation attaining the maximal violation of the Mermin inequality. Thus, in the tripartite GHZ scenario, the logical-paradox and Bell-inequality routes to nonlocality select the same exposed quantum boundary point. We also establish a robust version of the self-test, showing that small deviations from the ideal Hardy constraints imply quantitative closeness to the target state and measurements. Our results reveal a qualitative geometric difference between bipartite and tripartite Hardy-type nonlocality and suggest a broader investigation of exposedness for multipartite Hardy correlations in the multiparty setting.
We demonstrate that, in the tripartite scenario with all parties' local events being space-like separated, Hardy-type nonlocality reveals a stronger nonlocal correlation than those captured by Mermin-type inequalities, an important distinction previously unrecognized. To substantiate this assertion, we develop a general framework for tripartite correlations by extending the notion of Settings Independence and Outcome Independence beyond their bipartite formulation. This framework highlights the pivotal role of Hardy-type reasoning in detecting genuine multipartite nonlocality. Furthermore, we show that the tripartite Hardy-nonlocality enables self-testing of a broad class of pure nonmaximally genuine entangled tripartite states, offering a key advantage over Bell inequality-based methods by allowing certification even under nonmaximal violations. Unlike Bell functionals, which typically self-test only a single extremal point, the Hardy relation self-tests a set of extremal correlations for any nonzero Hardy probability. This, in turn, facilitates the device-independent certification of randomness from Hardy-type correlations. We find that the maximum certifiable randomness is ${log}_{2}7\ensuremath{\approx}2.8073$-bits, highlighting both the practical and foundational significance of Hardy-based techniques for quantum randomness generation.
In device-independent quantum information, correlations between local measurement outcomes observed by spatially separated parties in a Bell test play a fundamental role. Even though it is long-known that the set of correlations allowed in quantum theory lies strictly between the Bell-local set and the no-signaling set, many questions concerning the geometry of the quantum set remain unanswered. Here, we revisit the problem of when the boundary of the quantum set coincides with the no-signaling set in the simplest Bell scenario. In particular, for each Class of these common boundaries containing k zero probabilities, we provide a (5−k) -parameter family of quantum strategies realizing these (extremal) correlations. We further prove that self-testing is possible in all nontrivial Classes beyond the known examples of Hardy-type correlations, and provide numerical evidence supporting the robustness of these self-testing results. Candidates of one-parameter families of self-testing correlations from some of these Classes are identified. As a byproduct of our investigation, if the qubit strategies leading to an extremal nonlocal correlation are local-unitarily equivalent, a self-testing statement provably follows. Interestingly, all these self-testing correlations found on the no-signaling boundary are provably non-exposed. An analogous characterization for the set M of quantum correlations arising from finite-dimensional maximally entangled states is also provided. En route to establishing this last result, we show that all correlations of M in the simplest Bell scenario are attainable as convex combinations of those achievable using a Bell pair and projective measurements. In turn, we obtain the maximal Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality violation by any maximally entangled two-qudit state and a no-go theorem regarding the self-testing of such states.
Multipartite quantum states may exhibit different types of quantum entanglement in that they cannot be converted into each other by local quantum operations only, and fully understanding mathematical structures of different types of multipartite entanglement is a very challenging task. In this paper, from the viewpoint of Hardy's nonlocality, we compare W and GHZ (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger) states and show a couple of crucial different behaviors between them. Particularly, by developing a geometric model for Hardy's nonlocality problem of W states, we derive an upper bound for its maximal violation probability, which turns out to be strictly smaller than the corresponding probability of GHZ states. This gives us a new comparison between these two quantum states, and the result is also consistent with our intuition that GHZ states are more entangled. Furthermore, we generalize our approach to obtain an asymptotic characterization for general N-qubit W states, revealing that when N goes up, the speed that the maximum violation probabilities decay is exponentially slower than that of general N-qubit GHZ states. We provide some numerical simulations to verify our theoretical results.
Bell nonlocality is a special quantum nonlocality and has emerged as an important resource in quantum information processing tasks. Typically, there are two types of strategies for testing the Bell nonlocality: the Bell inequality method and the “all-versus-nothing proof", the later includes methods such as the GHZ argument and Hardy paradox. The objective of this work is to provide new methods for detecting Bell nonlocality by understanding Hardy-like paradoxes (HLPs) and Hardy-Bell inequalities (HBIs) as well as Hardy inequality. First, the weak HLP (WHLP) is established, and an HBI is obtained for tripartite correlation tensors (CTs) with two inputs and two outcomes. Based on an existing Hardy inequality for an n-qubit pure state, a Hardy inequality is proven for n-partite Bell local CTs. Second, the WHLP and HBI are proven for tripartite states in terms of conditional probabilities. Our WHLP is theoretically and practically easier to construct and more efficient in checking Bell nonlocality compared to the usual HLP.
As with a Bell inequality, Hardy's paradox manifests a contradiction between the prediction given by quantum theory and local hidden-variable theories. In this work, we give two generalizations of Hardy's arguments for manifesting such a paradox to an arbitrary, but symmetric, Bell scenario involving two observers. Our constructions recover that of Meng et al. [Phys. Rev. A 98, 062103 (2018)] and that first discussed by Cabello [Phys. Rev. A 65, 032108 (2002)] as special cases. Among the two constructions, one can be naturally interpreted as a demonstration of the failure of the transitivity of implications (FTI). Moreover, one of their special cases is equivalent to a ladder-proof-type argument for Hardy's paradox. Through a suitably generalized notion of success probability called degree of success, we provide evidence showing that the FTI-based formulation exhibits a higher degree of success compared with all other existing proposals. Moreover, this advantage seems to persist even if we allow imperfections in realizing the zero-probability constraints in such paradoxes. Explicit quantum strategies realizing several of these proofs of nonlocality without inequalities are provided.
Self-testing protocols enable the certification of quantum devices without demanding full knowledge about their inner workings. A typical approach in designing such protocols is based on observing nonlocal correlations which exhibit maximum violation in a Bell test. We show that in the Bell experiment known as Hardy's test of nonlocality, not only does the maximally nonlocal correlation self-test a quantum state, rather a nonmaximal nonlocal behavior can serve the same purpose. We, in fact, completely characterize all such behaviors leading to a self-test of every pure two-qubit entangled state except for the maximally entangled ones. Apart from presenting an alternative self-testing protocol, our method provides a powerful tool towards characterizing the complex boundary of the set of quantum correlations.