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Physical Review A

Experimental ladder proof of Hardy's nonlocality for high-dimensional quantum systems

Lixiang Chen, Wuhong Zhang, Ziwen Wu, Jikang Wang, Robert Fickler, Ebrahim Karimi

Published Aug 9, 2017• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing interest in high-dimensional quantum entanglement for fundamental studies as well as towards novel applications. Therefore, the ability to verify entanglement between physical qudits, $d$-dimensional quantum systems, is of crucial importance. To show nonclassicality, Hardy's paradox represents ``the best version of Bell's theorem'' without using inequalities. However, so far it has only been tested experimentally for bidimensional vector spaces. Here, we formulate a theoretical framework to demonstrate the ladder proof of Hardy's paradox for arbitrary high-dimensional systems. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate the ladder proof by taking advantage of the orbital angular momentum of high-dimensionally entangled photon pairs. We perform the ladder proof of Hardy's paradox for dimensions 3 and 4, both with the ladder up to the third step. Our paper paves the way towards a deeper understanding of the nature of high-dimensionally entangled quantum states and may find applications in quantum information science.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.022115

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Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing interest in high-dimensional quantum entanglement for fundamental studies as well as towards novel applications. Therefore, the ability to verify entanglement between physical qudits, ddd-dimensional quantum systems, is of crucial importance. To show nonclassicality, Hardy's paradox represents ``the best version of Bell's theorem'' without using inequalities. However, so far it has only been tested experimentally for bidimensional vector spaces. Here, we formulate a theoretical framework to demonstrate the ladder proof of Hardy's paradox for arbitrary high-dimensional systems. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate the ladder proof by taking advantage of the orbital angular momentum of high-dimensionally entangled photon pairs. We perform the ladder proof of Hardy's paradox for dimensions 3 and 4, both with the ladder up to the third step. Our paper paves the way towards a deeper understanding of the nature of high-dimensionally entangled quantum states and may find applications in quantum information science.
Characterizing high-dimensional entangled states is of crucial importance in quantum information science and technology. Recent theoretical progress has been made to extend Hardy's paradox into a general scenario with multisetting and multidimensional systems, which enables the maximum probability of nonlocal events to surpass the bound that was limited in Hardy's original test. Hitherto, no experimental verification has been conducted to verify Hardy's paradox, as most of the previous experimental efforts were restricted to two-dimensional systems. Here, based on two-photon high-dimensional orbital angular momentum (OAM) entanglement, we report an experiment to demonstrate Hardy's paradox for multiple settings and multiple outcomes. We demonstrate the paradox for two-setting higher-dimensional OAM subspaces up to d=7d=7d=7, which reveals that the nonlocal events increase with dimension. Furthermore, we showcase the nonlocality with an experimentally recorded probability of 36.77% for a five-setting three-dimensional OAM subspace via entanglement concentration, thus showing a sharper contradiction between quantum mechanics and classical theory.
High-dimensional entangled states are of crucial importance, as they provide higher channels for quantum information. Angular position, as a continuous variable, provides an infinite Hilbert space theoretically. It is usually represented in discrete bases experimentally because of the convenient modulation of the width of the angular aperture. Thus the combination of the angular apertures will conveniently shape the two photon states. And the entanglement of the two photon states can be naturally demonstrated by Hardy's paradox. Here, by testing Hardy's paradox for two-setting high-dimensional angular subspaces with dimension ranging from 2 to 7 and for multisetting three-dimensional subspaces with setting ranging from 3 to 5, we reveal the high-dimensional entanglement in the angular-position degree of freedom. We show that the high-dimensional angular-position entanglement can yield a much sharper contradiction between the quantum mechanics and classical theories. Our work shows that the angular variable can be considered as an alternative discrete base to provide the high-dimensional entangled states. Thus it may be used as a new platform for quantum information.
Hardy's nonlocality proof is considered as "the best version of Bell's theorem". We report an experimental implementation of this by measuring the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of entangled twisted photon pairs. Two advantages arise from using twisted photons. First, the limited OAM spectrum generated by parametric down-conversion provides a natural set of OAM non-maximally entangled states with selective degrees of entanglement. Second, the measurement of any non-trivial superposition of OAM states can be conveniently done with spatial light modulators. We measure states that are defined on asymmetric OAM Bloch spheres and show results which are incompatible with local realism.
We have experimentally tested the non local properties of the states generated by a high brilliance source of entanglement which virtually allows the direct measurement of the full set of photon pairs created by the basic QED process implied by the parametric quantum scattering. Standard Bell measurements and Bell's inequality violation test have been realized over the entire cone of emission of the degenerate pairs. By the same source we have verified the Hardy's ladder theory up to the 20th step and the contradiction between the standard quantum theory and the local realism has been tested for 41% of entangled pairs. PACS: 03.65.Ud, 03.67.Mn, 42.65.Lm
Characterizing high-dimensional entangled states holds pivotal significance in quantum information science and technology. Recent theoretical progress has been made to extend the Collins-Gisin-Linden-Massar-Popescu (CGLMP) inequality into a general scenario with multisetting and multidimensional systems. Here, by employing two-photon orbital angular momentum entanglement, we conduct an experiment to demonstrate the CGLMP inequality across multiple settings and outcomes. Our experimental results violate the CGLMP inequality by more than 12 standard deviations, demonstrating that the maximum violation increases with both dimension and setting. Furthermore, we reveal, both theoretically and experimentally, the logical connection between the CGLMP inequality and the general Hardy's paradox. Intriguingly, our analysis establishes that, even in high-dimensional systems, Hardy's paradox can be regarded as a special instance of Bell inequality, with their respective bounds aligning under the no-signaling principle and the information causality principle. Our work may advance the foundational understanding of quantum correlations in high-dimensional quantum systems.
Local realistic models cannot completely describe all predictions of quantum mechanics. This is known as Bell's theorem that can be revealed either by violations of Bell inequality, or all-versus-nothing proof of nonlocality. Hardy's paradox is an important all-versus-nothing proof and is considered as ``the simplest form of Bell's theorem.'' In this work, we advance the study of Hardy's paradox based on Bell's inequality. Our formalism is essentially equivalent to the ``logical Bell inequality'' formalism developed by Abramsky and Hardy, but ours is more easily applied to experimental tests. Remarkably, we find that not only for a two-qubit two-setting case but also for a two-qubit four-setting case, we can construct stronger Hardy-type paradoxes based on Bell's inequality, whose successful probabilities can attain four times and seven times larger than the original one, respectively, thus providing more friendly tests for experiment. Meanwhile, we experimentally test the stronger Hardy-type paradoxes in a two-qubit system. Within the experimental errors, the experimental results coincide with the theoretical predictions.