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Physical Review A

Characterization of nonsignaling bipartite correlations corresponding to quantum states

Markus Frembs, Andreas Döring

Published Dec 19, 2022• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Characterizing quantum correlations from physical principles is a central problem in the field of quantum information theory. Entanglement breaks bounds on correlations put forth by Bell's theorem, thus challenging the notion of local causality as a physical principle. A natural relaxation is to study no-signalling as a constraint on joint probability distributions. It was shown that, when considered with respect to so-called locally quantum observables, bipartite nonsignalling correlations never exceed their quantum counterparts; still, such correlations generally do not derive from quantum states. This leaves open the search for additional principles which identify quantum states within the larger set of (collections of) nonsignalling joint probability distributions over locally quantum observables. Here, we suggest a natural generalization of no-signalling in the form of no-disturbance to dilated systems. We prove that nonsignalling joint probability distributions satisfying this extension correspond with bipartite quantum states up to a choice of time orientation in subsystems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.106.062420

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Physical Review A•Oct 12, 2022•10 citations
Characterizing quantum correlations from physical principles is a central problem in the field of quantum information theory. Entanglement breaks bounds on correlations put forth by Bell's theorem, thus challenging the notion of local causality as a physical principle. A natural relaxation is to study no-signalling as a constraint on joint probability distributions. It was shown that, when considered with respect to so-called locally quantum observables, bipartite nonsignalling correlations never exceed their quantum counterparts; still, such correlations generally do not derive from quantum states. This leaves open the search for additional principles which identify quantum states within the larger set of (collections of) nonsignalling joint probability distributions over locally quantum observables. Here, we suggest a natural generalization of no-signalling in the form of no-disturbance to dilated systems. We prove that nonsignalling joint probability distributions satisfying this extension correspond with bipartite quantum states up to a choice of time orientation in subsystems.
Characterising quantum correlations from physical principles is a central problem in the field of quantum information theory. Entanglement breaks bounds on correlations put by Bell's theorem, thus challenging the notion of local causality as a physical principle. A natural relaxation is to study no-signalling as a constraint on joint probability distributions. It has been shown that when considered with respect to so-called locally quantum observables, bipartite non-signalling correlations never exceed their quantum counterparts; still, such correlations generally do not derive from quantum states. This leaves open the search for additional principles which identify quantum states within the larger set of (collections of) non-signalling joint probability distributions over locally quantum observables. Here, we suggest a natural generalisation of no-signalling in the form of no-disturbance to dilated systems. We prove that non-signalling joint probability distributions satisfying this extension correspond with bipartite quantum states up to a choice of time orientation in subsystems.
It is well-known that in a Bell experiment, the observed correlation between measurement outcomes – as predicted by quantum theory – can be stronger than that allowed by local causality, yet not fully constrained by the principle of relativistic causality. In practice, the characterization of the set Q of quantum correlations is carried out, often, through a converging hierarchy of outer approximations. On the other hand, some subsets of Q arising from additional constraints [e.g., originating from quantum states having positive-partial-transposition (PPT) or being finite-dimensional maximally entangled (MES)] turn out to be also amenable to similar numerical characterizations. How, then, at a quantitative level, are all these naturally restricted subsets of nonsignaling correlations different? Here, we consider several bipartite Bell scenarios and numerically estimate their volume relative to that of the set of nonsignaling correlations. Within the number of cases investigated, we have observed that (1) for a given number of inputs ns (outputs no ), the relative volume of both the Bell-local set and the quantum set increases (decreases) rapidly with increasing no ( ns ) (2) although the so-called macroscopically local set Q1 may approximate Q well in the two-input scenarios, it can be a very poor approximation of the quantum set when ns > no (3) the almost-quantum set Q~1 is an exceptionally-good approximation to the quantum set (4) the difference between Q and the set of correlations originating from MES is most significant when no=2 , whereas (5) the difference between the Bell-local set and the PPT set generally becomes more significant with increasing no . This last comparison, in particular, allows us to identify Bell scenarios where there is little hope of realizing the Bell violation by PPT states and those that deserve further exploration.
Bell's seminal paper shows that some correlations in quantum theory are not reconcilable with hidden variables and the classical notion of locality. Yet, a weaker notion of locality, known as no-signalling, survives the no-go-result. Here, we study its restrictiveness by considering the full set of local quantum observables. This leads to a much larger set of no-signalling constraints than usually considered, which is enough to exclude PR-boxes and other types of super-quantum correlations. We emphasise the close connection with contextuality, in particular, we show how no-signalling arises naturally from context composition. Finally, we prove a one-to-one correspondence between quantum states and collections of (non-signalling) probability distributions over product contexts under an additional consistency condition between time arrows in subsystems.
Physical theories constrained with local quantum structure and satisfying the no-signalling principle can allow beyond-quantum global states. In a standard Bell experiment, correlations obtained from any such beyond-quantum bipartite state can always be reproduced by quantum states and measurements, suggesting local quantum structure and no-signalling to be the axioms to isolate quantum correlations. In this letter, however, we show that if the Bell experiment is generalized to allow local quantum inputs, then beyond-quantum correlations can be generated by every beyond-quantum state. This gives us a way to certify beyond-quantumness of locally quantum no-signalling theories and in turn suggests requirement of additional information principles along with local quantum structure and no-signalling principle to isolate quantum correlations. More importantly, our work establishes that the additional principle(s) must be sensitive to the quantum signature of local inputs. We also generalize our results to multipartite locally quantum no-signalling theories and further analyze some interesting implications.
The no-signalling principle lies at the heart of Bell-type experiments involving spacelike-separated parties. Although not all no-signalling correlations can be realized within quantum theory, the no-sinalling principle itself remains fundamental even for post-quantum theories, since its violation would imply superluminal signalling. In the spirit of device independent nature of the Bell inequalities, there has recently been growing interest in causal inequalities, which identify correlations admitting no causal explanation. Such correlations have been rigorously studied within the process-matrix formalism, which is built upon a constraint analogous to spacelike separation in Bell scenarios. We refer to this constraint as the single-interaction constraint, whereby each party interacts with the environment only once. Despite considerable effort, no fundamental guiding principle is currently known that characterizes the restrictions this constraint imposes on the correlations generated by Process Matrices. In this work, we address this gap by proposing a generalized causality principle for the bipartite case. We show that for certain cases, the generalised causality principle defines a strict subset of the set of all signalling correlations. This principle thus provides a fundamental limit on quantum and even post-quantum theories subject to the single-interaction constraint. By analogy with no-signalling, whose violation excludes certain causal structures among the parties, a violation of the generalised causality principle rules out a corresponding class of causal structures(causal structures with the single interaction constraint). More broadly, our techniques provide a general framework for deriving generalised causal constraints, applicable to a wide class of indefinite-causal-order scenarios.