It is generally believed that Bell's inequality holds for the case of entangled states, including two correlated particles or special states of a single particle. Here, we derive a single-particle Bell's inequality for two correlated spin states at two successive times, appealing to the statistical independence condition in an ideal experiment, for a locally causal hidden variables theory. We show that regardless of the locality assumption, the inequality can be violated by some quantum predictions.
It is generally believed that Bell's inequality holds for the case of entangled states, including two correlated particles or special states of a single particle. Here, we derive a single-particle Bell's inequality for two correlated spin states at two successive times, appealing to the statistical independence condition in an ideal experiment, for a locally causal hidden variables theory. We show that regardless of the locality assumption, the inequality can be violated by some quantum predictions.
John Bell and others used a locality condition to establish inequalities that they believe must be satisfied by any local hidden-variable model for the spin probability distribution for two entangled particles in a Bohm-EPR experiment. We show that this condition is invalid because it contradicts the product rule of probability theory for any model that exhibits the expected property of perfect correlation. This breaks the connection between Bell inequalities and the existence of any local hidden-variable model of interest. As already known, these inequalities give necessary conditions for the existence of third/fourth-order joint probability distributions for the spin outcomes from three/four separate Bohm-EPR experimental set-ups that are consistent with the second-order joint spin distributions for each experiment after marginalization. If a Bell inequality is violated, as quantum mechanics theory predicts and experiments show can happen, then at least one third-order joint probability is negative. However, this does not imply anything about the existence of local hidden-variable models for the second-order joint probability distributions for the spin outcomes of a single experiment. The locality condition does seem reasonable under the widely-applied frequentist interpretation of the spin probability distributions that views them as real properties of a random process that are manifested through their relative frequency of occurrence, which gives conditioning in the probabilities for the spin outcomes a causal role. In contrast, under the Bayesian interpretation of probability, probabilistic conditioning on one particle's spin outcome in the product rule is viewed as information to make probabilistic predictions of the other particle's spin outcome. There is nothing causal and so no reason to develop a locality condition.
EPR showed that two particles emitted from a source can be entangled by a shared wavefunction where two non-commuting observables (position, momentum) can be simultaneously real, leading to a contradiction with quantum mechanics (two non-commuting variables can not be simultaneously real). John Bell derived an inequality where any local hidden variables prediction is bounded and quantum mechanics can violate the inequality. Bell tests on correlated photon pairs showed a clear violation of the Bell inequality and agreement with quantum mechanics. This study revealed that the Bell inequality holds at any individual instances in a given system but it does not hold over the entire population. The Bell inequality is not an incompatibility criterion for local hidden variables vs quantum mechanics rather it is a criterion for an individual nature vs population dynamics. The nonlocality prediction given by wavefunction is a system approximation and local causality (photon polarization) provides a complete description of the Bell tests. The paper concludes with great satisfaction that the measurement of two correlated photons at a distance was a local cause (photon-filter interaction did not violate the special theory of relativity).
In this paper we derive a general approach using correlation functions for interpreting the results of measurements on two-particle entangled states. In our analysis we explicitly take into account the detector efficiency. We show that all Bell-type inequalities have bounds depending on both the losses in the apparatus and the supplementary assumptions about the statistical distribution of the losses themselves. Moreover, our approach enables us to include in the causal and local theory the same assumptions as used in the quantum mechanical analysis of an experiment, and to deduce the inequality which has to be satisfied by any local realistic model incorporating these assumptions. We show that, although the most recent experiments on Bell's inequality can be considered to be a remarkable step in the direction of testing quantum mechanics predictions, the loophole of the low quantum efficiency of the detector is not yet solved. In fact, using the quantum mechanical assumption of random nondetection in the causal and local approach, we deduce a generalized Bell-type inequality which includes no-count events and whose upper bound can be violated by the quantum mechanical predictions only if the detector quantum efficiency is >0.811.
Extensive experimental tests of the Bell inequality have been conducted over time and the test results are viewed as a testimony to quantum mechanics. In considering the close tie between quantum mechanics and statistical theory, this paper identifies the mistake in previous statistical explanation and uses an elegant statistical approach to derive general formulas for two-particle Bell tests, without invoking any wavefunctions. The results show that, for the special case where the spins/polarizations are in the same, opposite, or perpendicular directions, the general formulas derived in this paper convert to quantum predictions, which are confirmed by numerous experiments. The paper also investigates the linkages between the statistical and quantum predictions and finds that vector decomposition and probability law are at the heart of both approaches. Based on this finding, the paper explains statistically why the local hidden variable theory fails the Bell tests. The paper has important implications for quantum computing, quantum theory in general, and the role of randomism and realism in physics.
The original Bell inequality was obtained in a statistical derivation assuming three mutually cross-correlated random variables (four in the later version). Given that observations destroy the particles, the physical realization of three variables from an experiment producing two particles per trial requires two separate trial runs. One assumed variable value (for particle 1) occurs at a fixed instrument setting in both trial runs while a second variable (for particle 2) occurs at alternative instrument settings in the two trial runs. Given that measurements on the two particles occurring in each trial are themselves correlated, measurements from independent realizations at mutually exclusive settings on particle 2 are conditionally independent, i.e., conditionally dependent on particle 1, through probability. This situation is realized from variables defined by Bell using entangled particle pairs. Two correlations have the form that Bell computed from entanglement, but a third correlation from conditionally independent measurements has a different form. When the correlations are computed using quantum probabilities, the Bell inequality is satisfied without recourse to assumptions of non-locality, or non-reality.
It is one of the most remarkable features of quantum physics that measurements on spatially separated systems cannot always be described by a locally causal theory. In such a theory, the outcomes of local measurements are determined in advance solely by some unknown (or hidden) variables and the choice of local measurements. Correlations that are allowed within the framework of a locally causal theory are termed classical. Typically, the fact that quantum mechanics does not always result in classical correlations is revealed by the violation of Bell inequalities, which are constraints that have to be satisfied by any classical correlations. It has been known for a long time that entanglement is necessary to demonstrate nonclassical correlations, and hence a Bell inequality violation. However, since some entangled quantum states are known to admit explicit locally causal models, the exact role of entanglement in Bell inequality violation has remained obscure. This thesis provides both a comprehensive review on these issues as well as a report on new discoveries made to clarify the relationship between entanglement and Bell inequality violation. In particular, within the framework of a standard Bell experiment, i.e., a Bell inequality test that is directly performed on a single copy of a quantum state r, we have derived two algorithms to determine, respectively, a lower bound and an upper bound on the strength of correlations that r can offer for any given Bell inequality. Both of these algorithms make use convex optimization techniques in the form of a semidefinite program. By examples, we show that these algorithms can often be used in tandem, in conjunction with convexity arguments, to determine if a quantum state can offer nonclassical correlations and hence violates a given Bell inequality. On the other hand, since a standard Bell experiment typically involves measurements over many copies of the quantum systems, we have also investigated the possibility of enhancing the strength of nonclassical correlation by, instead, performing collective measurements on multiple copies of the quantum systems. Our findings show that even without postselection, such joint measurements may also lead to stronger nonclassical correlations, and hence a better Bell inequality violation. Meanwhile, previous studies have indicated that entangled state admitting locally causal models may still lead to observable nonclassical correlations if, prior to a standard Bell experiment, the state is subjected to some appropriate local preprocessing. This phenomenon of hidden nonlocality was discovered more than a decade ago, but to date, it is still not known if all entangled states can demonstrate nonclassical correlations through these more sophisticated Bell experiments. A key result in this thesis then consists of showing that for all bipartite entangled states, observable nonclassical correlations, in the form of a Bell-CHSH inequality violation, can indeed be derived if we allow both local preprocessing and the usage of shared ancillary state which by itself does not violate the Bell-CHSH inequality. This establishes a kind of equivalence between bipartite entanglement and states that cannot be simulated by classical correlations. In summary, for a standard Bell experiment where no local preprocessing on a quantum state r is allowed, we have provided two algorithms that can be used in tandem to determine if r can be simulated by a locally causal theory, whereas in the scenario where local preprocessing is allowed, we have demonstrated that bipartite entangled states are precisely those which cannot always be simulated classically.