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Tropical tensor networks and Bell inequalities

Hu, M.

Published Jun 18, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum computers promise computational capabilities beyond the reach of efficient classical methods, raising a central question: how can one rigorously certify nonclassical behavior in large-scale quantum devices under minimal assumptions? Bell nonlocality, the strongest and most device-independent form of quantum correlation, provides a natural framework to address this question. This thesis develops mathematical and experimental tools to detect and characterize Bell nonlocality in many-body quantum systems, with a focus on scalable Bell-inequality constructions, and the use of Bell operators as practical benchmarks for quantum processors. We first introduce a tropical tensor network framework that recasts the optimization of classical bounds for multipartite Bell inequalities as a tensor contraction in tropical algebra, enabling the characterization of broad inequality families and an extension to the thermodynamic limit. Building on this, we develop a systematic theory of translation-invariant Bell inequalities in one dimension. We then study two-dimensional spin models on the square lattice, quantifying how open, periodic, and topologically nontrivial boundary conditions modify the strength of certifiable Bell violations. On the experimental side, we demonstrate certified multipartite Bell-operator correlations on a programmable superconducting processor, including a 73-qubit honeycomb model, by mapping Bell inequalities onto many-body Hamiltonians. We further introduce a bidirectional optimization framework that co-designs Bell inequalities and Hamiltonians for a given device, yielding stronger and more noise-resilient certification.

DOI
10.60602/1887-4304686

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Quantum computers promise computational capabilities beyond the reach of efficient classical methods, raising a central question: how can one rigorously certify nonclassical behavior in large-scale quantum devices under minimal assumptions? Bell nonlocality, the strongest and most device-independent form of quantum correlation, provides a natural framework to address this question. This thesis develops mathematical and experimental tools to detect and characterize Bell nonlocality in many-body quantum systems, with a focus on scalable Bell-inequality constructions, and the use of Bell operators as practical benchmarks for quantum processors. We first introduce a tropical tensor network framework that recasts the optimization of classical bounds for multipartite Bell inequalities as a tensor contraction in tropical algebra, enabling the characterization of broad inequality families and an extension to the thermodynamic limit. Building on this, we develop a systematic theory of translation-invariant Bell inequalities in one dimension. We then study two-dimensional spin models on the square lattice, quantifying how open, periodic, and topologically nontrivial boundary conditions modify the strength of certifiable Bell violations. On the experimental side, we demonstrate certified multipartite Bell-operator correlations on a programmable superconducting processor, including a 73-qubit honeycomb model, by mapping Bell inequalities onto many-body Hamiltonians. We further introduce a bidirectional optimization framework that co-designs Bell inequalities and Hamiltonians for a given device, yielding stronger and more noise-resilient certification.
Bell nonlocality is the resource that enables device-independent quantum information processing tasks. It is revealed through the violation of so-called Bell inequalities, indicating that the observed correlations cannot be reproduced by any local hidden-variable model. While well explored in few-body settings, the question of which Bell inequalities are best suited for a given task remains quite open in the many-body scenario. One natural approach is to assign Bell inequalities to physical Hamiltonians, mapping their interaction graph to two-body, nearest-neighbor terms. Here, we investigate the effect of boundary conditions in a two-dimensional square lattice, which can induce different topologies in lattice systems. We find a relation between the induced topology and the Bell inequality's effectiveness in revealing nonlocal correlations. By using a combination of tropical algebra and tensor networks, we quantify their detection capacity for nonlocality. Our work can act as a guide to certify Bell nonlocality in many-qubit devices by choosing a suitable Hamiltonian and measuring its ground-state energy, a task that many quantum experiments are purposely built for.
Multipartite Bell nonlocality provides a device-independent probe of many-body quantum correlations, but its characterization is limited by the rapid growth of the underlying classical and quantum optimization problems. We develop a scalable method for constructing and certifying permutationally invariant Bell inequalities using only one- and two-body correlators. The construction gives families of inequalities with robust quantum violations for general mmm measurements as the number of parties NNN becomes large. To improve robustness against noise, we optimize the ratio of the quantum value to the classical bound for these families in the large-NNN limit. We then certify the resulting quantum violation using semidefinite programming. For the broad class of Bell inequalities studied here, the infinite-NNN ratios take simple rational values for finite mmm and converge to coth⁡(1)\coth(1)coth(1) as m→∞m\to\inftym→∞. The optimized inequalities efficiently detect many-body Bell nonlocality with collective measurements, with more measurement settings leading to stronger violations.
Nonlocality is one of the key features of quantum physics, which is revealed through the violation of a Bell inequality. In large multipartite systems, nonlocality characterization quickly becomes a challenging task. A common practice is to make use of symmetries, low-order correlators, or exploiting local geometries, to restrict the class of inequalities. In this paper, we characterize translation-invariant (TI) Bell inequalities with finite-range correlators in one-dimensional geometries. We introduce a novel methodology based on tropical algebra tensor networks and highlight its connection to graph theory. Surprisingly, we find that the TI Bell polytope has a number of extremal points that can be uniformly upper-bounded with respect to the system size. We give an efficient method to list all vertices of the polytope for a particular system size, and characterize the tightness of a given TI Bell inequality. The connections highlighted in our work allow us to re-interpret concepts developed in the fields of tropical algebra and graph theory in the context of Bell nonlocality, and vice-versa. This work extends a parallel article [M. Hu \textit{et al.}, arXiv: 2208.02798 (2022)] on the same subject.
Bell nonlocality is an intrinsic feature of quantum mechanics, which can be detected via the violation of Bell inequalities. It is therefore a fundamental question to certify Bell nonlocality from experimental data. Here we present an optimization framework to detect Bell-operator correlations by exploring flexible mappings between Bell inequalities and Hamiltonians corresponding to the Bell operators. We show that several Hamiltonian models can be mapped to new inequalities with improved classical bounds compared to the original one, enabling a more robust certification of Bell-operator correlations. From the other direction, we investigate the mapping from fixed Bell inequalities to Hamiltonians, aiming to maximize quantum violations while considering experimental imperfections. As a practical application, we experimentally exploit this method in an -like honeycomb-lattice model utilizing over 70 superconducting qubits. The successful application of this technique, together with the combination of the two directions to form an optimization loop, may open new avenues for developing more practical and noise-resilient certification techniques for Bell-operator correlations and enable broader experimental explorations.
We show that finding the classical bound of broad families of Bell inequalities can be naturally framed as the contraction of an associated tensor network, but in tropical algebra, where the sum is replaced by the minimum and the product is replaced by the arithmetic addition. We illustrate our method with paradigmatic examples both in the multipartite scenario and the bipartite scenario with multiple outcomes. We showcase how the method extends into the thermodynamic limit for some translationally invariant systems and establish a connection between the notions of tropical eigenvalue and the classical bound per particle as a fixed point of a tropical renormalization procedure.
Quantum nonlocality describes a stronger form of quantum correlation than that of entanglement. It refutes Einstein’s belief of local realism and is among the most distinctive and enigmatic features of quantum mechanics. It is a crucial resource for achieving quantum advantages in a variety of practical applications, ranging from cryptography and certified random number generation via self-testing to machine learning. Nevertheless, the detection of nonlocality, especially in quantum many-body systems, is notoriously challenging. Here, we report an experimental certification of genuine multipartite Bell-operator correlations, which signal nonlocality in quantum many-body systems, up to 24 qubits with a fully programmable superconducting quantum processor. In particular, we employ energy as a Bell-operator correlation witness and variationally decrease the energy of a many-body system across a hierarchy of thresholds, below which an increasing Bell-operator correlation depth can be certified from experimental data. We variationally prepare the low-energy state of a two-dimensional honeycomb model with 73 qubits and certify its Bell-operator correlations by measuring an energy that surpasses the corresponding classical bound with up to 48 standard deviations. In addition, we variationally prepare a sequence of low-energy states and certify their genuine multipartite Bell-operator correlations up to 24 qubits via energies measured efficiently by parity oscillation and multiple quantum coherence techniques. Our results establish a viable approach for preparing and certifying multipartite Bell-operator correlations, which provide not only a finer benchmark beyond entanglement for quantum devices, but also a valuable guide toward exploiting multipartite Bell correlations in a wide spectrum of practical applications.