Tsirelson's Inequality for the Precession Protocol is Maximally Violated by Quantum Theory

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zaw, Lin Htoo, Weilenmann, Mirjam, Scarani, Valerio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918017828388864
author Zaw, Lin Htoo
Weilenmann, Mirjam
Scarani, Valerio
author_facet Zaw, Lin Htoo
Weilenmann, Mirjam
Scarani, Valerio
contents The precession protocol involves measuring $P_3$, the probability that a uniformly precessing observable (like the position of a harmonic oscillator or a coordinate undergoing spatial rotation) is positive at one of three equally spaced times. Tsirelson's inequality, which states that $P_3 \leq 2/3$ in classical theory, is violated in quantum theory by certain states. In this Letter, we address some open questions about the inequality: What is the maximum violation of Tsirelson's inequality possible in quantum theory? Might other theories do better? By considering the precession protocol in a theory-independent manner for systems with finitely many outcomes, we derive a general bound for the maximum possible violation. This theory-independent bound must be satisfied by any theory whose expectation values are linear functions of observables -- which includes classical, quantum, and all general probabilistic theories -- and depends only on the minimum positive and negative measurement outcomes. Given any such two values, we prove by construction that quantum theory always saturates this bound. Some notable examples include the angular momentum of a spin-$3/2$ particle and a family of observables that outperform the quantum harmonic oscillator in the precession protocol. Finally, we also relate our findings to the recently introduced notion of constrained conditional probabilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_16147
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tsirelson's Inequality for the Precession Protocol is Maximally Violated by Quantum Theory
Zaw, Lin Htoo
Weilenmann, Mirjam
Scarani, Valerio
Quantum Physics
The precession protocol involves measuring $P_3$, the probability that a uniformly precessing observable (like the position of a harmonic oscillator or a coordinate undergoing spatial rotation) is positive at one of three equally spaced times. Tsirelson's inequality, which states that $P_3 \leq 2/3$ in classical theory, is violated in quantum theory by certain states. In this Letter, we address some open questions about the inequality: What is the maximum violation of Tsirelson's inequality possible in quantum theory? Might other theories do better? By considering the precession protocol in a theory-independent manner for systems with finitely many outcomes, we derive a general bound for the maximum possible violation. This theory-independent bound must be satisfied by any theory whose expectation values are linear functions of observables -- which includes classical, quantum, and all general probabilistic theories -- and depends only on the minimum positive and negative measurement outcomes. Given any such two values, we prove by construction that quantum theory always saturates this bound. Some notable examples include the angular momentum of a spin-$3/2$ particle and a family of observables that outperform the quantum harmonic oscillator in the precession protocol. Finally, we also relate our findings to the recently introduced notion of constrained conditional probabilities.
title Tsirelson's Inequality for the Precession Protocol is Maximally Violated by Quantum Theory
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.16147