Experimental Test of the Kochen-Specker Theorem with Single Photons

Huang, Yun‐Feng; Li, Chuan‐Feng; Zhang, Yongsheng; Pan, Jian-Wei; Guo, Guang‐Can

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.250401

Cited by 142 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…It is thus quite hard to pin down what exactly a purported experimental test of contextuality proves, or could prove, that we do not know already. In our opinion, this key point is not adequately addressed in the papers under discussion (Cabello & García-Alcaine, 1998;Simon et al, 2000;Basu et al, 2001;Huang et al, 2003;Hasegawa et al, 2003).…”

Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…4.1 we argue that, quite independently of the issue of finite precision, the idea of an experimental refutation of non-contextuality is based on conceptual confusion, and that the experiments that have actually been carried out are, as far as contextuality goes, not of major significance. We examine in particular an experiment that has actually been performed, Huang et al (2003), inspired by a proposal of Simon et al (2000), in turn based on a scheme of Cabello & García-Alcaine (1998). (Another recent experiment is that of Hasegawa et al (2003), which is similar to a proposal of Basu et al (2001) -we do not discuss this in detail, since the same arguments apply).…”

Section: Experimental Tests Of Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Quite a few experiments purporting to test contextuality have recently been proposed (Cabello & García-Alcaine, 1998;Simon et al, 2000;Basu et al, 2001) and performed (Huang et al, 2003;Hasegawa et al, 2003). Several authors have suggested an analogy between these purported experimental tests of contextuality and Bell experiments testing local causality.…”

Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In each of Cabello & García-Alcaine (1998), Simon et al (2000), and Huang et al (2003), the work is motivated via an analogy with Bell's theorem. Bell's theorem tells us that locally causal theories are incompatible with quantum mechanics, according to Bell's precise definition (Bell, 1985) of "locally causal".…”

Section: What Can An Experiments Tell Us About Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-contextuality, finite precision measurement and the Kochen–Specker theorem

Barrett

Kent

2004

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

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Meyer originally raised the question of whether non-contextual hidden variable models can, despite the Kochen-Specker theorem, simulate the predictions of quantum mechanics to within any fixed finite experimental precision (Meyer, D. 1999. Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 3751-3754). Meyer's result was extended by Kent (Kent, A. 1999. Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 3755-3757). Clifton and Kent later presented constructions of non-contextual hidden variable theories which, they argued, indeed simulate quantum mechanics in this way (Clifton, R and Kent, A. 2000. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 456, 2101-2114.These arguments have evoked some controversy. Among other things, it has been suggested that the Clifton-Kent models do not in fact reproduce correctly the predictions of quantum mechanics, even when finite precision is taken into account. It has also been suggested that careful analysis of the notion of contextuality in the context of finite precision measurement motivates definitions which imply that the Clifton-Kent 1 models are in fact contextual. Several critics have also argued that the issue can be definitively resolved by experimental tests of the KochenSpecker theorem or experimental demonstrations of the contextuality of Nature.One aim of this paper is to respond to and rebut criticisms of the Meyer-Clifton-Kent papers. We thus elaborate in a little more detail how the Clifton-Kent models can reproduce the predictions of quantum mechanics to arbitrary precision. We analyse in more detail the relationship between classicality, finite precision measurement and contextuality, and defend the claims that the Clifton-Kent models are both essentially classical and non-contextual. We also examine in more detail the senses in which a theory can be said to be contextual or non-contextual, and in which an experiment can be said to provide evidence on the point. In particular, we criticise the suggestion that a decisive experimental verification of contextuality is possible, arguing that the idea rests on a conceptual confusion.

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Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Experimental Tests Of Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Can An Experiments Tell Us About Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Non-contextuality, finite precision measurement and the Kochen–Specker theorem

Barrett

Kent

2004

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

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“…9 The price of this extra dimension is that the experiment whose outcome provides the empirical input for the Free Will Theorem has not actually been performed, except at a single wing (Huang et al, 2003). However, the predictions of quantum mechanics are uncontroversial and will serve as input instead.…”

Section: The Free Will Theorem Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the notion of free will in the Free Will Theorem

Landsman

2017

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

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The (Strong) Free Will Theorem (fwt) of Conway & Kochen (2009) on the one hand follows from uncontroversial parts of modern physics and elementary mathematical and logical reasoning, but on the other hand seems predicated on an undefined notion of free will (allowing physicists to "freely choose" the settings of their experiments). This makes the theorem philosophically vulnerable, especially if it is construed as a proof of indeterminism or even of libertarian free will (as Conway & Kochen suggest).However, Cator and the author (Foundations of Physics 44, 781-791, 2014) previously gave a reformulation of the fwt that does not presuppose indeterminism, but rather assumes a mathematically specific form of such "free choices" even in a deterministic world (based on a non-probabilistic independence assumption). In the present paper, which is a philosophical sequel to the one just mentioned, I argue that the concept of free will used in the latter version of the fwt is essentially the one proposed by Lewis (1981), also known as 'local miracle compatibilism' (of which I give a mathematical interpretation that might be of some independent interest also beyond its application to the fwt). As such, the (reformulated) fwt in my view challenges compatibilist free willà la Lewis (albeit in a contrived way via bipartite epr-type experiments), falling short of supporting libertarian free will.

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Single‐Particle Entanglement

et al. 2020

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This review is about single-particle entanglement. Entanglement occurs when the state of a quantum system with at least two degrees of freedom has a particular non-separable form. In the case of single-particle entanglement, this quantum correlation is shared by the same particle being it a photon, a neutron, an ion, or an atom. Here, the basics of quantum entanglement are discussed focusing on the case it is related to the degrees of freedom of a single particle. It is discussed how the violation of peculiar inequalities in this context rules out any realistic non-contextual hidden variable theory alternative to quantum mechanics. Moreover, experiments that demonstrate single-particle entanglement for photons, neutrons, and atoms are discussed. Finally, the applications of single-particle entanglement as a resource for quantum information are discussed and specifically quantum key distribution is detailed, where the use of single-particle entangled photons allows to improve the security of the BB84 protocol.

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Experimental Test of the Kochen-Specker Theorem with Single Photons

Cited by 142 publications

References 22 publications

Non-contextuality, finite precision measurement and the Kochen–Specker theorem

Non-contextuality, finite precision measurement and the Kochen–Specker theorem

On the notion of free will in the Free Will Theorem

Single‐Particle Entanglement

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