Physical Review A

Testing Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen assumptions without inequalities with two photons or particles with spin 1/2

Thomas F. Jordan

Published Jul 1, 1994• 49 citations

Abstract

A recent discovery by Hardy [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1665 (1993)] is developed and extended. It shows that the inconsistency between quantum mechanics and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen assumptions about locality and reality can be demonstrated for two photons or particles with spin 1/2, as in experiments that test Bell inequalities, but without inequalities, as in what Greenberger, Horne, and Zeilinger discovered for three or four particles [in Bell's Theorem, Quantum Theory, and Conceptions of the Universe, edited by M. Kafatos (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1989), p. 74]. Here all the possibilities are found. The measurement choices can be different for the two particles. They are described directly in terms of angles for spin measurements. Hardy's result and its converse are both proved: almost any state will do (with measurement choices made to accommodate) and any choice of two different measurement possibilities for each particle will do (with a state made to accommodate). A simple example is given; it allows the calculations to be done quickly with Pauli matrices.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.50.62

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