arXiv subjects

Marek Żukowski

Publications and source records attributed to Marek Żukowski.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Multipartite Bell-GHZ nonclassicality from interwoven frustrated down-conversion

We present a theory of an interference process that starts with N coherently pumped two-mode parametric down-conversion (PDC) sources, whose output modes are directed to N observers such that each observer receives modes from two different source crystals. Each observation station is equipped with a locally controlled PDC crystal, coherently pumped with the source crystals, whose output modes are perfectly aligned with the input modes from the source PDCs. By varying the local phases of the input modes, perfect 2N-photon interference can be observed in 2N single-photon registrations, one in each output mode of these N local PDCs. The interference results from the indistinguishability of the origins of the detected 2N photons: either they all originate from the source PDCs or from the local PDCs. Bell-GHZ nonclassicality of the process emerges when one also considers situations in which at least one of the local PDC processes is blocked. In such cases, the 2N-photon interference disappears. A "lifted" Clauser-Horne inequality is violated when its sole negative term, involving all observers with all local pumps active, is tuned to maximal destructive interference, while all other terms involve settings in which one of the local pumps is off.

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arXiv2026

Unquestionable Bell theorem for interwoven frustrated down conversion processes

Interwoven frustrated parametric down conversion (PDC) processes produce interference effects based on path identity [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 080401 (2017)]. In this letter we show Bell nonclassicality of the processes: a proper violation of the Clauser-Horne inequality when the local measurements are controlled by on-off switching of the final local PDC processes. Such a non-standard approach is needed because if only the local phase shifts are used for the measurement settings, as done in the experiment reported in Sci. Adv. 11, 1794 (2025), there exists a local realistic model of the interference, which we present in this letter. Nevertheless, the reported destructive interference is deep enough to violate the inequality when using on-off switching, so our result establishes a firm footing for non-classicality of the new interferometry, in both theory and experiment. The on-off approach to Bell analysis of path-identity-based interference forms a new platform for seeking new highly counterintuitive quantum phenomena.

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arXiv2026

"Nonlocality-of-a-single-photon" based Quantum Key Distribution and Random Number Generation schemes and their device-independent security analysis

The question of ``non-locality of a single photon'', which started with a paper by Tan, Walls and Collett (TWC, 1991) stirred a thirty years long debate. This hampered attempts to use the TWC interferometric scheme in quantum cryptography. The scheme involves a single photon 50-50 beam-split into two modes propagating to two spatially separated observation stations at which weak homodyne measurements are made. The physics and non-classicality of such an arrangement has been understood only recently, and points out that an unquestionable Bell non-classicality, as was suggested by Hardy (1994), can be observed when the local measurement settings differ by the weak local oscillator being on or off, and additionally the homodyning for the on case is not balanced. Based on that, we present a single-photon based device-independent quantum key distribution scheme secure even against no-signaling eavesdropping. In our protocol the random bits of the cryptographic key are obtained by measurements on the single photon, that is for off settings at both Alice and Bob sides, while the security is positively tested if for eavesdropping testing runs one observes a violation of a specific Bell inequality involving the on and off weak homodyne measurements as alternative local settings. The security analysis presented here is based on a decomposition of the correlations into extreme points of a no-signaling polytope, which allows for identification of the optimal strategy for any eavesdropping constrained only by the no-signaling principle. For this strategy, the key rate is calculated, which is then connected with the violation of a specific Clauser-Horne inequality. We also adapt this analysis to propose a self-testing quantum random number generator based on the old idea that employs the randomness of reflection and transmission events of a quantum light impinged on a 50-50 beamsplitter.

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arXiv2025

Against (unitary) interpretation (of quantum mechanics): removing the metaphysical load

In June 1925 Heisenberg arrived at Helgoland/Heligoland island to escape a fit of hay fever. He returned with a sketch of a strange theory of the micro-world, which we now call quantum mechanics. This essay attempts to present a look at this theory, which tries to return to the original insight of Heisenberg on what should be the essence of a theory of atomic realm: it must be a theory of the observable events, in which fundamentally unobservable quantities have no place. No ontological status is given to elements of the mathematical formulation of the theory. The theory is about our description of events in laboratories, probabilities of which are given by the Born rule. Following Bohr, these events involve macroscopic measuring apparatuses, and the accessible final events are classically describable. Information about the events is cloneable, as it is of a classical nature. The modern quantum theory of classicality is the decoherence theory. It treats "the pointer variable" of measuring apparatus as an open system interacting with an environment consisting of all other "zillions" of degrees of freedom of the device, and anything coupled to it. Because such environment is uncontrollable we have no possibility to reverse measurements. The quantum mechanical measurement theory based on decoherence theory is reproducing the predictions of Born rule. Notwithstanding, possibility of reversing measurements and of application of Born rule in situations other than these which lead to macroscopically observable events are features of a modification of quantum mechanics which is called by its adherents "unitary quantum mechanics". As its predictions, which go beyond quantum mechanics, are not testable - we claim that unitary quantum mechanics in an interpretation of quantum mechanics. As such it is metaphysics.

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arXiv2024

Relational Quantum Mechanics is Still Incompatible with Quantum Mechanics

We showed in a recent article (Lawrence et. al., 2023, Quantum 7, 1015), that relative facts (outcomes), a central concept in Relational Quantum Mechanics, are inconsistent with Quantum Mechanics. We proved this by constructing a Wigner-Friend type sequential measurement scenario on a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state of three qubits, and making the following assumption: "if an interpretation of quantum theory introduces some conceptualization of outcomes of a measurement, then probabilities of these outcomes must follow the quantum predictions as given by the Born rule." Our work has been criticized by Cavalcanti, Di Biagio, and Rovelli (CDR). In this note we show that their critique is invalid, and that their specific arguments raise questions of principle.

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arXiv2024

Relational Quantum Mechanics with Cross-Perspective Links Postulate: an Internally Inconsistent Scheme

We discuss the status of relative facts - the central concept of Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) - in the context of the new amendment to RQM called cross-perspective links postulate. The new axiom states that by a proper measurement one learns the value of the relative outcome/fact earlier obtained by another observer-system. We discuss a Wigner-Friend-type scenario in which, without cross-perspective links postulate, relative facts have no predictive or causal power, whereas including cross-perspective links makes them effectively hidden variables, which causally determine outcomes of specific measurements. However, cross-perspective links axiom invalidates the other axiom of RQM, the one which states that in a Wigner-Friend scenario, RQM assigns an entangled state to the Friend and System after the unitary transformation of their interaction, despite the appearance of the relative fact for the Friend. This quantum mechanical state according to RQM properly describes the situation for Wigner. From this we show that RQM with cross-perspective links axiom is an internally inconsistent hidden variable theory and therefore cannot be treated as an interpretation of quantum mechanics in any sense.

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arXiv2023

Improved entanglement indicators for optical fields and its application in the event-ready experiment for bright squeezed vacuum with induced non-gaussianity

Better versions of separability conditions for four mode optical fields, i.e. two beams with two modes of mutually orthogonal polarization are given. Our conditions involve variances. Their meaning is intuitive and their implementation is feasible. Namely, if for a given quantum state the spread of the data around its mean value is smaller than the minimal spread predicted for the set of separable states, then the given state is entangled. Our conditions are formulated for standard quantum Stokes observables and normalized Stokes observables and result to be more efficient that the previous conditions for four mode optical fields involving variances. We test our conditions for bright squeezed vacuum with (and without) induced non-gaussianity obtained by addition or subtraction of photons. Also we propose a practical experimental scheme of how to generate such states for an event-ready experiment.

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arXiv2023

Relative Facts of Relational Quantum Mechanics are Incompatible with Quantum Mechanics

Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) claims to be an interpretation of quantum theory [see arXiv:2109.09170, which appears in the Oxford Handbook of the History of Interpretation of Quantum Physics]. However, there are significant departures from quantum theory: (i) in RQM measurement outcomes arise from interactions which entangle a system $S$ and an observer $A$ without decoherence, and (ii) such an outcome is a "fact" relative to the observer $A$, but it is not a fact relative to another observer $B$ who has not interacted with $S$ or $A$ during the foregoing measurement process. For $B$ the system $S \otimes A$ remains entangled. We derive a GHZ-like contradiction showing that relative facts described by these statements are incompatible with quantum theory. Hence Relational Quantum Mechanics should not be considered an interpretation of quantum theory, according to a criterion for interpretations that we have introduced. The criterion states that whenever an interpretation introduces a notion of outcomes, these outcomes, whatever they are, must follow the probability distribution specified by the Born rule.

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arXiv2022

Relative facts do not exist. Relational Quantum Mechanics is Incompatible with Quantum Mechanics. Response to the critique by Aurélien Drezet

In this comment we answer to the recent critique of our article [arXiv:2208.11793] about Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) by Aurélien Drezet [arXiv:2209.01237]. Here we point out that our critical analysis of RQM was precisely based on the most recent formulation of RQM, and that the theses found in the critique are based on neither RQM assumptions nor on our arguments.

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arXiv2022

Avenues to generalising Bell inequalities

Characterizing the set of all Bell inequalities is a notably hard task. An insightful method of solving it in case of Bell correlation inequalities for scenarios with two dichotomic measurements per site - for arbitrary number of parties - was given in Refs. [Phys. Rev. A 64, 010102(R) (2001)] and [Phys. Rev. A 64, 032112 (2001)]. Using complex-valued correlation functions, we generalize their approach to a broader class of Bell scenarios, in which the parties may choose from more than 2 multi-outcome measurements. Although the resulting families of Bell inequalities are not always tight, their coefficients have an intuitively understandable structure.We probe their usefulness by numerically testing their ability to detect Bell nonclassicality in simple interferometric experiments. Moreover, we identify a similar structure in the CGLMP inequality expressed in a correlation-based form, which allows us to generalise it to three parties.

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arXiv2022

Bosonic fields in states with undefined particle numbers possess detectable non-contextuality features, plus more

Most of the paradoxical, for the classical intuition, features of quantum theory were formulated for situations which involve a fixed number of particles. While one can now find a formulation of Bell's theorem for quantum fields, a Kochen-Specker-type reasoning is usually formulated for just one particle, or like in the case of Peres-Mermin square for two. A question emerges. Is it possible to formulate a contextuality proof for situation in which the numbers of particles are fundamentally undefined? We address this problem for bosonic fields. We introduce a representation of the $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ algebra in terms of boson number states in two modes that allows us to assess nonclassicality of states of bosonic fields. As a figure of merit of a nonclassical behaviour we analyze first of all contextuality, and we show that the introduced observables are handy and efficient to reveal violation of local realism, and to formulate entanglement indicators. We construct a method which extends the Kochen-Specker contextuality to bosonic quantum fields. A form of an inequality is derived using a suitable version of the Peres-Mermin square. The entanglement indicators use a witness built with specially defined Pauli-like observables. Finally, Bell-nonclassicality is discussed: an inequality that involves the expectation values of pairs of the Pauli-like operators is presented. The introduced indicators are shown to be effective, e.g. they reveal nonclassicality in situaations involving undefined boson numbers. This is shown via quantum optical examples of the $2\times 2$ bright squeezed vacuum state, and a recently discussed bright-GHZ state resulting from multiple three photon emissions in a parametric process.

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arXiv2022

Optimal interferometry for Bell$-$nonclassicality by a vacuum$-$one$-$photon qubit

Bell nonclassicality of a single photon superposition in two modes, often referred to as `nonlocality of a single photon', is one of the most striking nonclassical phenomena discussed in the context of foundations of quantum physics. Here we show how to robustly violate local realism within the weak-field homodyne measurement scheme for \textit{any} superposition of one photon with vacuum. Our modification of the previously proposed setups involves tunable beamsplitters at the measurement stations, and the local oscillator fields significantly varying between the settings, optimally being {\it on} or {\it off}. As photon number resolving measurements are now feasible, we advocate for the use of the Clauser-Horne Bell inequalities for detection events using precisely defined numbers of photons. We find a condition for optimal measurement settings for the maximal violation of the Clauser-Horne inequality with weak-field homodyne detection, which states that the reflectivity of the local beamsplitter must be equal to the strength of the local oscillator field. We show that this condition holds not only for the vacuum-one-photon qubit input state, but also for the superposition of a photon pair with vacuum, which suggests its generality as a property of weak-field homodyne detection with photon-number resolution. Our findings suggest a possible path to employ such scenarios in device-independent quantum protocols.

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arXiv2022

Hierarchy of correlation quantifiers comparable to negativity

Quantum systems generally exhibit different kinds of correlations. In order to compare them on equal footing, one uses the so-called distance-based approach where different types of correlations are captured by the distance to different sets of states. However, these quantifiers are usually hard to compute as their definition involves optimization aiming to find the closest states within the set. On the other hand, negativity is one of the few computable entanglement monotones, but its comparison with other correlations required further justification. Here we place negativity as part of a family of correlation measures that has a distance-based construction. We introduce a suitable distance, discuss the emerging measures and their applications, and compare them to relative entropy-based correlation quantifiers. This work is a step towards correlation measures that are simultaneously comparable and computable.

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arXiv2021

Simplified Quantum Optical Stokes observables and Bell's Theorem

We introduce a simplified form of Stokes operators for quantum optical fields that involve the known concept of binning. Behind polarization analyzer photon numbers (more generally intensities) are measured. If the value obtained in one of the outputs, say H, is greater the than in the other one, V, then the value of the simplified Stokes operator is, say, 1, otherwise it is -1. For equal photon numbers we put 0. Such observables do not have all properties of the Stokes operators, but surprisingly can be employed in Bell type measurements, involving polarization analyzers. They are especially handy for states of undefined number of photons, e.g. squeezed vacuum. We show that surprisingly they can lead to quite robust violations of associated Bell inequalities.

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arXiv2021

Comment on `Single particle nonlocality with completely independent reference states'

We comment on the purported violation of local realism, by a single photon induced correlations between homodyne detectors, which one can find in: New J. Phys. 10, 113024 (2008), [arXiv:0807.0109]. The claim is erroneous, due to a calculational mistake. As the result is the basis of other claims in the paper, they are unsubstantiated.

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arXiv2021

On detecting violation of local realism with photon-number resolving weak-field homodyne measurements

Non-existence of a local hidden variables (LHV) model for a phenomenon benchmarks its use in device-independent quantum protocols. Nowadays photon-number resolving weak-field homodyne measurements allow realization of emblematic gedanken experiments. Alas, claims that we can have no LHV models for such experiments on (a) excitation of a pair of spatial modes by a single photon, and (b) two spatial modes in a weakly squeezed vacuum state, involving constant local oscillator strengths, are unfounded. For (a) an exact LHV model resolves the dispute on the "non-locality of a single photon" in its original formulation. It is measurements with local oscillators on or off that do not have LHV models.

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arXiv2021

Physics and Metaphysics of Wigner's Friends: Even performed pre-measurements have no results

"The unambiguous account of proper quantum phenomena must, in principle, include a description of all relevant features of experimental arrangement" (Bohr). The measurement process is composed of pre-measurement (quantum correlation of the system with the pointer variable), and an irreversible decoherence via interaction with an environment. The system ends up in a probabilistic mixture of the eigenstates of the measured observable. For the pre-measurement stage, any attempt to introduce an 'outcome' leads, as we show, to a logical contradiction, $1=i$. This nullifies claims that a modified concept of Wigner's Friend, who just pre-measures, can lead to valid results concerning quantum theory.

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arXiv2021

Can single photon excitation of two spatially separated modes lead to a violation of Bell inequality via homodyne measurements?

We reconsider the all-optical homodyne-measurement based experimental schemes that aim to reveal Bell nonclassicality of a single photon, often termed `nonlocality'. We focus on the schemes put forward by Tan, Walls and Collett (TWC, 1991) and Hardy (1994). In the light of our previous work the Tan, Walls and Collett setup can be described by a precise local hidden variable model, hence the claimed nonclassicality of this proposal is apparent, whereas the nonclassicality proof proposed by Hardy is impeccable. In this work we resolve the following problem: which feature of the Hardy's approach is crucial for its successful confirmation of nonclassicality. The scheme of Hardy differs from the Tan, Walls and Collett setup in two aspects. (i) It introduces a superposition of a single photon excitation with vacuum as the initial state of one of the input modes of a 50-50 beamsplitter, which creates the superposition state of two separable (exit) modes under investigation. (ii) In the final measurements Hardy's proposal utilises a varying strengths of the local oscillator fields, whereas in the TWC case they are constant. In fact the local oscillators in Hardy's scheme are either on or off (the local setting is specified by the presence or absence of the local auxiliary field). We show that it is the varying strength of the local oscillators, from setting to setting, which is the crucial feature enabling violation of local realism in the Hardy setup, whereas it is not necessary to use initial superposition of a single photon excitation with vacuum as the initial state of the input mode. Neither one needs to operate in the fully on/off detection scheme. Despite the failure of the Tan, Walls and Collett scheme in proving Bell nonclassicality, we show that their scheme can serve as an entanglement indicator.

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