Steering is a form of quantum nonlocality that is intimately related to the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox that ignited the ongoing discussion of quantum correlations. Within the hierarchy of nonlocal correlations appearing in nature, EPR steering occupies an intermediate position between Bell nonlocality and entanglement. In continuous variable systems, EPR steering correlations have been observed by violation of Reid's EPR inequality, which is based on inferred variances of complementary observables. Here we propose and experimentally test a new criterion based on entropy functions, and show that it is more powerful than the variance inequality for identifying EPR steering. Using the entropic criterion our experimental results show EPR steering, while the variance criterion does not. Our results open up the possibility of observing this type of nonlocality in a wider variety of quantum states.
Quantum nonlocality has recently been classified into three distinct types: quantum entanglement, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering, and Bell's nonlocality. Experimentally Bell's nonlocality is usually tested by quantum violation of the Clause-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality in the two-qubit system. Bell's nonlocality is the strongest type of nonlocality, also due this reason Bell-test experiments have encountered both the locality loophole and the detection loophole for a very long time. As a weaker nonlocality, EPR steering naturally escapes from the locality loophole and is correspondingly easier to be demonstrated without the detection loophole. In this work, we trigger an extraordinary approach to investigate Bell's nonlocality, which is strongly based on the EPR steering. We present a theorem, showing that for any two-qubit state
τ, if its mapped state
ρ is EPR steerable, then the state
τ must be Bell nonlocal. The result not only pinpoints a deep connection between EPR steering and Bell's nonlocality, but also sheds a new light to realize a loophole-free Bell-test experiment (without the CHSH inequality) through the violation of steering inequality.
We propose criteria and experimental strategies to realise the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering nonlocality. One-way steering can be obtained where there is asymmetry of thermal noise on each system. We also present EPR steering inequalities that act as signatures and suggest how to optimise EPR correlations in specific schemes so that the genuine multipartite EPR steering nonlocality (EPR paradox) can also possibly be realised. The results presented here also apply to the spatially separated macroscopic atomic ensembles.