No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate hybrid entanglement of photon pairs via the experimental violation of a Bell inequality with two different degrees of freedom (DOF), namely the path (linear momentum) of one photon and the polarization of the other photon. Hybrid entangled photon pairs are created by Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion and coherent polarization to path conversion for one photon. For that photon, path superposition is analyzed, and polarization superposition for its twin photon. The correlations between these two measurements give an S-parameter of S=2.653+/-0.027 in a CHSH inequality and thus violate local realism for two different DOF by more than 24 standard deviations. This experimentally supports the idea that entanglement is a fundamental concept which is indifferent to the specific physical realization of Hilbert space.
We demonstrate a scheme to generate noncoherent and coherent correlations, i.e., a tunable degree of entanglement, between degrees of freedom of a single photon. Its nature is analogous to the tuning of the purity (first-order coherence) of a single photon forming part of a two-photon state by tailoring the correlations between the paired photons. Therefore, well-known tools such as the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell-like inequality can also be used to characterize entanglement between degrees of freedom. More specifically, CHSH inequality tests are performed, making use of the polarization and the spatial shape of a single photon. The four modes required are two polarization modes and two spatial modes with different orbital angular momentum.
A finite non-classical framework for physical theory is described which challenges the conclusion that the Bell Inequality has been shown to have been violated experimentally, even approximately. This framework postulates the universe as a deterministic locally causal system evolving on a measure-zero fractal-like geometry $I_U$ in cosmological state space. Consistent with the assumed primacy of $I_U$, and $p$-adic number theory, a non-Euclidean (and hence non-classical) metric $g_p$ is defined on cosmological state space, where $p$ is a large but finite Pythagorean prime. Using number-theoretic properties of spherical triangles, the inequalities violated experimentally are shown to be $g_p$-distant from the CHSH inequality, whose violation would rule out local realism. This result fails in the singular limit $p=infty$, at which $g_p$ is Euclidean. Broader implications are discussed.
For more than 80 years, the counterintuitive predictions of quantum theory have stimulated debate about the nature of reality. In his seminal work, John Bell proved that no theory of nature that obeys locality and realism can reproduce all the predictions of quantum theory. Bell showed that in any local realist theory the correlations between distant measurements satisfy an inequality and, moreover, that this inequality can be violated according to quantum theory. This provided a recipe for experimental tests of the fundamental principles underlying the laws of nature. In the past decades, numerous ingenious Bell inequality tests have been reported. However, because of experimental limitations, all experiments to date required additional assumptions to obtain a contradiction with local realism, resulting in loopholes. Here we report on a Bell experiment that is free of any such additional assumption and thus directly tests the principles underlying Bells inequality. We employ an event-ready scheme that enables the generation of high-fidelity entanglement between distant electron spins. Efficient spin readout avoids the fair sampling assumption (detection loophole), while the use of fast random basis selection and readout combined with a spatial separation of 1.3 km ensure the required locality conditions. We perform 245 trials testing the CHSH-Bell inequality $S leq 2$ and find $S = 2.42 pm 0.20$. A null hypothesis test yields a probability of $p = 0.039$ that a local-realist model for space-like separated sites produces data with a violation at least as large as observed, even when allowing for memory in the devices. This result rules out large classes of local realist theories, and paves the way for implementing device-independent quantum-secure communication and randomness certification.
We report the measurement of a Bell inequality violation with a single atom and a single photon prepared in a probabilistic entangled state. This is the first demonstration of such a violation with particles of different species. The entanglement characterization of this hybrid system may also be useful in quantum information applications.
We observe violation of a Bell inequality between the quantum states of two remote Yb ions separated by a distance of about one meter with the detection loophole closed. The heralded entanglement of two ions is established via interference and joint detection of two emitted photons, whose polarization is entangled with each ion. The entanglement of remote qubits is also characterized by full quantum state tomography.