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Physical Review A

Detector efficiency in the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger paradox: Independent errors

Jan-Åke Larsson

Published Jun 1, 1999• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox is subject to the detector-efficiency ``loophole'' in a similar manner as the Bell inequality. In a paper by J.-\AA{}. Larsson [Phys. Rev. A 57, R3145 (1998)], the issue is investigated for very general assumptions. Here, the assumptions of constant efficiency and independent errors will be imposed, and it will be shown that the necessary and sufficient efficiency bound is not lowered, but remains at $75%$. An explicit local-variable model is constructed in this paper to show the necessity of this bound. In other words, it is not possible to use the independence of experimental nondetection errors to rule out local realism in the GHZ paradox below $75%$ efficiency.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.59.4801

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The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox is subject to the detector-efficiency ``loophole'' in a similar manner as the Bell inequality. In a paper by J.-\AA{}. Larsson [Phys. Rev. A 57, R3145 (1998)], the issue is investigated for very general assumptions. Here, the assumptions of constant efficiency and independent errors will be imposed, and it will be shown that the necessary and sufficient efficiency bound is not lowered, but remains at 7575%75. An explicit local-variable model is constructed in this paper to show the necessity of this bound. In other words, it is not possible to use the independence of experimental nondetection errors to rule out local realism in the GHZ paradox below 7575%75 efficiency.
In this paper detector efficiency conditions are derived for the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox. The conditions will be necessary and sufficient, i.e., the GHZ paradox is explicable in terms of a local-variable model if the efficiency is below the bounds, and the GHZ prerequisites are inconsistent at higher efficiencies. The derivation does not make use of any of the symmetry assumptions usually made in the literature, most notably the assumption of independent errors. The errors in local-hidden-variable models are governed by the ``hidden variable'' and, therefore, one cannot in general assume that the errors are independent. It will be shown that this assumption is not necessary. Moreover, bounds are presented that do not need the emission rate of particle triples to be known. An example of such a bound is the ratio of the triple coincidence rate and the double coincidence rate at two detectors, which needs to be higher than 75% to yield a contradiction.
The Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) puzzle has been used to study quantum nonlocality and provide an all-or-nothing, no-go theorem for local hidden-variable models. Recent experiments using coincident-detected entangled photons prepared in a three-particle GHZ state have been used to test quantum nonlocality, but fail to rule out local realism due to a reliance on the fair-sampling hypothesis and insufficient detection efficiency. This paper describes a physically motivated local hidden-variable model based on amplitude-threshold detection that is capable of producing similar results. Detection efficiencies for the model are within the bounds permitted for local realism and, interestingly, exhibit statistical correlations between detectors, even when the detection events are spacelike separated. Increasing the detection threshold improves agreement with the ideal quantum predictions at the cost of decreased detection efficiency. A curious emergent feature of the model is that detection efficiencies may depend upon which observables are chosen for measurement.
In this thesis, the question "What kind of models can be used to describe microcosmos?" will be discussed. Being difficult and very large in scope, the question has here been restricted to whether or not Local Realistic models can be used to describe Quantum-Mechanical processes, one of a collection of questions often referred to as Quantum Paradoxes. Two such paradoxes will be investigated using techniques from probability theory: the Bell inequality and the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox. A problem with the two mentioned paradoxes is that they are only valid when the detectors are 100% efficient, whereas present experimental efficiency is much lower than that. Here, an approach is presented which enables a generalization of both the Bell inequality and the GHZ paradox to the inefficient case. This is done by introducing the concept of change of ensemble, which provides both qualitative and quantitative information on the nature of the "loophole" in the 100% efficiency prerequisite, and is more fundamental in this regard than the efficiency concept. Efficiency estimates are presented which are easy to obtain from experimental coincidence data, and a connection is established between these estimates and the concept of change of ensemble. The concept is also studied in the context of Franson interferometry, where the Bell inequality cannot immediately be used. Unexpected subtleties occur when trying to establish whether or not a Local Realistic model of the data is possible even in the ideal case. A Local Realistic model of the experiment is presented, but nevertheless, by introducing an additional requirement on the experimental setup it is possible to refute the mentioned model and show that no other Local Realistic model exists.
We prove that the threshold detection efficiency for a loophole-free Bell experiment using an n-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and the correlations appearing in the n-partite Mermin inequality is n/(2n-2). If the detection efficiency is equal to or lower than this value, there are local hidden variable models that can simulate all the quantum predictions. If the detection efficiency is above this value, there is no local hidden variable model that can simulate all the quantum predictions.
Introduction Since its inception, fifty years ago, Bell's theorem has had a long history not only of experimental tests but also of theoretical developments. Studying pairs of correlated quantummechanical particles separated in space, in a composite “entangled” state, Bell [1] showed that the joint ascription of hidden variables and locality to the system led to an inequality that is violated by the predictions of quantum mechanics. Fifteen years later, experiments confirmed the predictions of quantum mechanics, ruling out a large class of local realist theories. One of the most meaningful theoretical developments that followed Bell's work was the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) theorem, also known as Bell's theorem without inequalities. In 1989, the American physicists Daniel Greenberger and Michael Horne, who had been working on Bell's theorem since the late 1960s, together with the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger, introduced a novelty into the testing of entanglement, extending Bell's theorem in a different and interesting direction. According to Franck Laloë [2], For many years, everyone thought that Bell had basically exhausted the subject by considering all really interesting situations, and that two-spin systems provided the most spectacular quantum violations of local realism. It therefore came as a surprise to many when in 1989 Greenberger, Horne, and Zeilinger (GHZ) showed that systems containing more than two correlated particles may actually exhibit even more dramatic violations of local realism. The trio analyzed the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen 1935 argument once again and were able to write what are now called Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states, involving three or four correlated spin-1/2 particles, leading to conflicts between local realist theories and quantum mechanics. However, unlike Bell's theorem, the conflict now was not of a statistical nature, as was the case with Bell's theorem, insofar as measurements on a single GHZ state could lead to conflicting predictions with local realistic models [3–5]. In this paper we present the history of the creation of this theorem and analyze its scope.
The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger~(GHZ) version of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen~(EPR) paradox is widely regarded as a conclusive logical argument that rules out the possibility of describing quantum phenomena within the framework of a local and realistic model of hidden variables in which the observers are free to choose their own experimental settings. In this paper we show, however, that the GHZ argument implicitly relies on an additional crucial assumption, which is not required by fundamental physical principles and had gone unnoticed. Namely, we note that the argument implicitly assumes the existence of an absolute angular frame of reference with respect to which the polarization properties of the hypothetical hidden configurations of the entangled particles as well as the orientation of the measurement apparatus that test the system can be defined. We further note that such an absolute frame of reference would not exist if the hidden configurations of the entangled particles spontaneously break the gauge rotational symmetry. Indeed, by skipping this unnecessary additional assumption we are able to build an explicitly local and realistic model of hidden variables for the GHZ state, which complies with the 'free-will' hypothesis and reproduces the quantum mechanical predictions, and thus completes the description of the system in the EPR sense.