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Physical Review Research

Ab initio experimental violation of Bell inequalities

Davide Poderini, Emanuele Polino, Giovanni Rodari, Alessia Suprano, Rafael Chaves, Fabio Sciarrino

Published Feb 28, 2022• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The violation of a Bell inequality is the paradigmatic example of device-independent quantum information: The nonclassicality of the data is certified without the knowledge of the functioning of devices. In practice, however, all Bell experiments rely on the precise understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms. Given that, it is natural to ask: Can one witness nonclassical behavior in a truly black-box scenario? Here, we propose and implement, computationally and experimentally, a solution to this ab initio task. It exploits a robust automated optimization approach based on the stochastic Nelder-Mead algorithm. Treating preparation and measurement devices as black boxes, and relying on the observed statistics only, our adaptive protocol approaches the optimal Bell inequality violation after a limited number of iterations for a variety photonic states, measurement responses, and Bell scenarios. In particular, we exploit it for randomness certification from unknown states and measurements. Our results demonstrate the power of automated algorithms, opening a venue for the experimental implementation of device-independent quantum technologies.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.4.013159

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The violation of a Bell inequality is the paradigmatic example of device-independent quantum information: The nonclassicality of the data is certified without the knowledge of the functioning of devices. In practice, however, all Bell experiments rely on the precise understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms. Given that, it is natural to ask: Can one witness nonclassical behavior in a truly black-box scenario? Here, we propose and implement, computationally and experimentally, a solution to this ab initio task. It exploits a robust automated optimization approach based on the stochastic Nelder-Mead algorithm. Treating preparation and measurement devices as black boxes, and relying on the observed statistics only, our adaptive protocol approaches the optimal Bell inequality violation after a limited number of iterations for a variety photonic states, measurement responses, and Bell scenarios. In particular, we exploit it for randomness certification from unknown states and measurements. Our results demonstrate the power of automated algorithms, opening a venue for the experimental implementation of device-independent quantum technologies.
The violation of a Bell inequality is the paradigmatic example of device-independent quantum information: the nonclassicality of the data is certified without the knowledge of the functioning of devices. In practice, however, all Bell experiments rely on the precise understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms. Given that, it is natural to ask: Can one witness nonclassical behaviour in a truly black-box scenario? Here we propose and implement, computationally and experimentally, a solution to this ab-initio task. It exploits a robust automated optimization approach based on the Stochastic Nelder-Mead algorithm. Treating preparation and measurement devices as black-boxes, and relying on the observed statistics only, our adaptive protocol approaches the optimal Bell inequality violation after a limited number of iterations for a variety photonic states, measurement responses and Bell scenarios. In particular, we exploit it for randomness certification from unknown states and measurements. Our results demonstrate the power of automated algorithms, opening a new venue for the experimental implementation of device-independent quantum technologies.
Bell tests - the experimental demonstration of a Bell inequality violation - are central to understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics, and are a powerful diagnostic tool for the development of quantum technologies. To date, Bell tests have relied on careful calibration of measurement devices and alignment of a shared reference frame between two parties - both technically demanding tasks. We show that neither of these operations are necessary, violating Bell inequalities (i) with certainty using unaligned, but calibrated, measurement devices, and (ii) with near-certainty using uncalibrated and unaligned devices. We demonstrate generic quantum nonlocality with randomly chosen measurements on a singlet state of two photons, implemented using a reconfigurable integrated optical waveguide circuit. The observed results demonstrate the robustness of our schemes to imperfections and statistical noise. This approach is likely to have important applications both in fundamental science and quantum technologies, including device-independent quantum key distribution.
Self-testing is the strongest certification procedure that uniquely characterizes the physical system based on the observed statistics, without any knowledge of the inner workings of the devices. The optimal quantum violation of a Bell inequality enables such a device-independent (DI) self-testing of the source and the measurement devices. In this work, we demonstrate the DI self-testing based on the arbitrary-input chained Bell inequality. We devise a systematic and elegant sum-of-squares (SOS) technique enabling dimension-independent optimization of the quantum violation. Our approach enables the derivation of the state along with the relationship between the local observables directly from the optimization condition. One significant aspect is the robustness of such self-testing in real experimental situations involving noise and imperfection, leading to deviation from the optimal quantum violation. We provide an analytical technique for robust self-testing in the presence of noise. As an application of our scheme, we demonstrate the generation of two bit DI randomness and analyze the robustness of such randomness. Our optimization method is both simple and elegant, making it suitable for deriving the optimal quantum violation of various arbitrary-input Bell inequalities.
For practical applications of quantum randomness generation, it is important to certify and further produce a fixed block of fresh random bits with as few trials as possible.Consequently, protocols with high finite-data efficiency are preferred.To yield such protocols with respect to quantum side information, we develop quantum probability estimation.Our approach is applicable to device-independent as well as device-dependent scenarios, and it generalizes techniques from previous works [Miller and Shi, SIAM J. Comput. 46, 1304 (2017); Arnon-Friedman et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 459 (2018)].Quantum probability estimation can adapt to changing experimental conditions, allows stopping the experiment as soon as the prespecified randomness goal is achieved, and can tolerate imperfect knowledge of the input distribution.Moreover, the randomness rate achieved at constant error is asymptotically optimal.For the device-independent scenario, our approach certifies the amount of randomness available in experimental results without first searching for relations between randomness and violations of fixed Bell inequalities.We implement quantum probability estimation for device-independent randomness generation in the CHSH Bell-test configuration, and we show significant improvements in finite-data efficiency, particularly at small Bell violations which are typical in current photonic loophole-free Bell tests.
Abstract The intrinsic random nature of quantum physics offers novel tools for the generation of random numbers, a central challenge for a plethora of fields. Bell non-local correlations obtained by measurements on entangled states allow for the generation of bit strings whose randomness is guaranteed in a device-independent manner, i.e. without assumptions on the measurement and state-generation devices. Here, we generate this strong form of certified randomness on a new platform: the so-called instrumental scenario, which is central to the field of causal inference. First, we theoretically show that certified random bits, private against general quantum adversaries, can be extracted exploiting device-independent quantum instrumental-inequality violations. Then, we experimentally implement the corresponding randomness-generation protocol using entangled photons and active feed-forward of information. Moreover, we show that, for low levels of noise, our protocol offers an advantage over the simplest Bell-nonlocality protocol based on the Clauser-Horn-Shimony-Holt inequality.
We investigate device-independent certification of global randomness based on Bell inequality violations in bipartite scenarios with three outcomes per party. Our goal is to determine whether multi-outcome measurements allow one to surpass the amount of randomness achievable with binary outputs in realistic scenarios. We begin by analyzing several known Bell expressions and evaluating their robustness against noise for randomness certification. We then introduce a systematic method for generating new Bell expressions within structured families and perform a large-scale numerical study. We find that a substantial number of inequalities certify significant amounts of min-entropy. In particular, we identify simple inequalities that achieve near-maximal global randomness while involving a reduced number of measurement settings, thus improving the balance between certified randomness and number of inputs. Moreover, the vast majority of nontrivial certificates exhibit robustness against realistic noise, maintaining positive certified randomness away from the ideal regime. These results demonstrate that strong device-independent randomness expansion in multi-outcome scenarios is not restricted to carefully engineered inequalities, but arises generically within suitably constructed families of Bell expressions.