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Matthew F. Pusey

Publications and source records attributed to Matthew F. Pusey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Spurious quantum correlations

In his seminal paper, Bell [Physics Physique Fizika 1, 195 (1964)] considers the correlations that result from space-like separated measurements on a pair of entangled particles. He uses relativity theory to motivate the Bell causal structure, then shows the existence of quantum correlations that cannot be explained classically within this causal structure. Classical explanations of such quantum correlations are possible in alternative causal structures, for instance, those that allow superluminal causal influences, but, as shown in [New Journal of Physics 17 033002 (2015)], all such alternative explanations require fine tuning (causation without correlation). Here we discuss the existence of spurious quantum correlations --- correlations that look quantum in one causal structure, but have a natural classical explanation in another. More precisely, there are causal structures that admit non-classical quantum correlations, but for which the same correlations have a classical explanation in another causal structure without fine tuning. The realisation in the other causal structure can also be achieved without breaking any natural constraints on the causal structure that follow from relativity theory. However, similarly to non-classical quantum correlations in the Bell causal structure, we find other causal structures with non-classical quantum correlations that do not have a classical causal explanation in any alternative causal structure without fine tuning.

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A refined Frauchiger--Renner paradox based on strong contextuality

The Frauchiger--Renner paradox derives an inconsistency when quantum theory is used to describe the use of itself, by means of a scenario where agents model other agents quantumly and reason about each other's knowledge. We observe that logical contextuality (\`a la Hardy) is the key ingredient of the FR paradox, and we provide a stronger paradox based on the strongly contextual GHZ--Mermin scenario. In contrast to the FR paradox, this GHZ--FR paradox neither requires post-selection nor any reasoning by observers who are modelled quantumly. If one accepts the universality of quantum theory including superobservers, we propose a natural extension of Peres's dictum to resolve these extended Wigner's friend paradoxes.

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A structure theorem for generalized-noncontextual ontological models

It is useful to have a criterion for when the predictions of an operational theory should be considered classically explainable. Here we take the criterion to be that the theory admits of a generalized-noncontextual ontological model. Existing works on generalized noncontextuality have focused on experimental scenarios having a simple structure: typically, prepare-measure scenarios. Here, we formally extend the framework of ontological models as well as the principle of generalized noncontextuality to arbitrary compositional scenarios. We leverage a process-theoretic framework to prove that, under some reasonable assumptions, every generalized-noncontextual ontological model of a tomographically local operational theory has a surprisingly rigid and simple mathematical structure -- in short, it corresponds to a frame representation which is not overcomplete. One consequence of this theorem is that the largest number of ontic states possible in any such model is given by the dimension of the associated generalized probabilistic theory. This constraint is useful for generating noncontextuality no-go theorems as well as techniques for experimentally certifying contextuality. Along the way, we extend known results concerning the equivalence of different notions of classicality from prepare-measure scenarios to arbitrary compositional scenarios. Specifically, we prove a correspondence between the following three notions of classical explainability of an operational theory: (i) existence of a noncontextual ontological model for it, (ii) existence of a positive quasiprobability representation for the generalized probabilistic theory it defines, and (iii) existence of an ontological model for the generalized probabilistic theory it defines.

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Classifying Causal Structures: Ascertaining when Classical Correlations are Constrained by Inequalities

The classical causal relations between a set of variables, some observed and some latent, can induce both equality constraints (typically conditional independences) as well as inequality constraints (Instrumental and Bell inequalities being prototypical examples) on their compatible distribution over the observed variables. Enumerating a causal structure's implied inequality constraints is generally far more difficult than enumerating its equalities. Furthermore, only inequality constraints ever admit violation by quantum correlations. For both those reasons, it is important to classify causal scenarios into those which impose inequality constraints versus those which do not. Here we develop methods for detecting such scenarios by appealing to d-separation, e-separation, and incompatible supports. Many (perhaps all?) scenarios with exclusively equality constraints can be detected via a condition articulated by Henson, Lal and Pusey (HLP). Considering all scenarios with up to 4 observed variables, which number in the thousands, we are able to resolve all but three causal scenarios, providing evidence that the HLP condition is, in fact, exhaustive.

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Uniqueness of noncontextual models for stabilizer subtheories

We give a complete characterization of the (non)classicality of all stabilizer subtheories. First, we prove that there is a unique nonnegative and diagram-preserving quasiprobability representation of the stabilizer subtheory in all odd dimensions, namely Gross's discrete Wigner function. This representation is equivalent to Spekkens' epistemically restricted toy theory, which is consequently singled out as the unique noncontextual ontological model for the stabilizer subtheory. Strikingly, the principle of noncontextuality is powerful enough (at least in this setting) to single out one particular classical realist interpretation. Our result explains the practical utility of Gross's representation by showing that (in the setting of the stabilizer subtheory) negativity in this particular representation implies generalized contextuality. Since negativity of this particular representation is a necessary resource for universal quantum computation in the state injection model, it follows that generalized contextuality is also a necessary resource for universal quantum computation in this model. In all even dimensions, we prove that there does not exist any nonnegative and diagram-preserving quasiprobability representation of the stabilizer subtheory, and, hence, that the stabilizer subtheory is contextual in all even dimensions.

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Experimentally bounding deviations from quantum theory in the landscape of generalized probabilistic theories

Many experiments in the field of quantum foundations seek to adjudicate between quantum theory and speculative alternatives to it. This requires one to analyze the experimental data in a manner that does not presume the correctness of the quantum formalism. The mathematical framework of generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs) provides a means of doing so. We present a scheme for determining which GPTs are consistent with a given set of experimental data. It proceeds by performing tomography on the preparations and measurements in a self-consistent manner, i.e., without presuming a prior characterization of either. We illustrate the scheme by analyzing experimental data for a large set of preparations and measurements on the polarization degree of freedom of a single photon. We find that the smallest and largest GPT state spaces consistent with our data are a pair of polytopes, each approximating the shape of the Bloch Sphere and having a volume ratio of $0.977 \pm 0.001$, which provides a quantitative bound on the scope for deviations from quantum theory. We also demonstrate how our scheme can be used to bound the extent to which nature might be more nonlocal than quantum theory predicts, as well as the extent to which it might be more or less contextual. Specifically, we find that the maximal violation of the CHSH inequality can be at most $1.3\% \pm 0.1$ greater than the quantum prediction, and the maximal violation of a particular inequality for universal noncontextuality can not differ from the quantum prediction by more than this factor on either side. The most significant loophole in this sort of analysis is that the set of preparations and measurements one implements might fail to be tomographically complete for the system of interest.

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Anomalous weak values and contextuality: robustness, tightness, and imaginary parts

Weak values are quantities accessed through quantum experiments involving weak measurements and post-selection. It has been shown that 'anomalous' weak values (those lying beyond the eigenvalue range of the corresponding operator) defy classical explanation in the sense of requiring contextuality [M. F. Pusey, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 200401, arXiv:1409.1535]. Here we elaborate on and extend that result in several directions. Firstly, the original theorem requires certain perfect correlations that can never be realised in any actual experiment. Hence, we provide new theorems that allow for a noise-robust experimental verification of contextuality from anomalous weak values, and compare with a recent experiment. Secondly, the original theorem connects the anomaly to contextuality only in the presence of a whole set of extra operational constraints. Here we clarify the debate surrounding anomalous weak values by showing that these conditions are tight -- if any one of them is dropped, the anomaly can be reproduced classically. Thirdly, whereas the original result required the real part of the weak value to be anomalous, we also give a version for any weak value with nonzero imaginary part. Finally, we show that similar results hold if the weak measurement is performed through qubit pointers, rather than the traditional continuous system. In summary, we provide inequalities for witnessing nonclassicality using experimentally realistic measurements of any anomalous weak value, and clarify what ingredients of the quantum experiment must be missing in any classical model that can reproduce the anomaly.

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Contextuality without access to a tomographically complete set

The non-classicality of single quantum systems can be formalised using the notion of contextuality. But can contextuality be convincingly demonstrated in an experiment, without reference to the quantum formalism? The operational approach to contextuality due to Spekkens requires finding operationally equivalent preparation procedures. Previously these have been obtained by demanding indistinguishability under a set of measurements taken to be tomographically complete. In the language of generalised probability theories, this requires the ability to explore all the dimensions of the system's state space. However, if the true tomographically complete set is larger than the set assumed, the extra measurements could break the operational equivalences and hence eliminate the putative contextuality. Such extra dimensions could arise in post-quantum theories, but even if quantum theory is exact there can be unexpected degrees of freedoms due to imperfections in an experiment. Here we design tests of contextuality that are immune to this effect for a given number of extra measurements in the tomographically complete set, even if nothing is known about their statistics. This allows contextuality to be demonstrated with weaker assumptions.

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Robust preparation noncontextuality inequalities in the simplest scenario

Contextuality is the leading notion of nonclassicality for a single system. However, an experimental demonstration requires finding procedures that are operationally equivalent, which might seem impossible to achieve exactly. Here I focus on the simplest non-trivial case, four preparations and two tomographically complete binary measurements. Exploiting a subtle connection to the CHSH scenario gives eight non-linear inequalities which are together necessary and sufficient for the experimental statistics to admit a preparation noncontextual model in such a scenario. No fixed operational equivalences are required, removing a key difficulty with experimental tests of older preparation noncontextuality inequalities.

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Can a quantum state over time resemble a quantum state at a single time?

Standard quantum theory represents a composite system at a given time by a joint state, but it does not prescribe a joint state for a composite of systems at different times. If a more even-handed treatment of space and time is possible, then such a joint state should be definable, and one might expect it to satisfy the following five conditions: that it is a Hermitian operator on the tensor product of the single-time Hilbert spaces; that it represents probabilistic mixing appropriately; that it has the appropriate classical limit; that it has the appropriate single-time marginals; that composing over multiple time-steps is associative. We show that no construction satisfies all these requirements. If an even-handed treatment of space and time is possible, therefore, one or more axioms must be dropped. In particular, if Hermiticity is dropped, then we show that the construction is fixed uniquely up to an ordering convention.

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Algorithmic construction of local hidden variable models for entangled quantum states

Constructing local hidden variable (LHV) models for entangled quantum states is challenging, as the model should reproduce quantum predictions for all possible local measurements. Here we present a simple method for building LHV models, applicable to general entangled states, which consists in verifying that the statistics resulting from a finite set of measurements is local, a much simpler problem. This leads to a sequence of tests which, in the limit, fully capture the set of quantum states admitting a LHV model. Similar methods are developed for constructing local hidden state models. We illustrate the practical relevance of these methods with several examples, and discuss further applications.

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Logical pre- and post-selection paradoxes are proofs of contextuality

If a quantum system is prepared and later post-selected in certain states, "paradoxical" predictions for intermediate measurements can be obtained. This is the case both when the intermediate measurement is strong, i.e. a projective measurement with Luders-von Neumann update rule, or with weak measurements where they show up in anomalous weak values. Leifer and Spekkens [quant-ph/0412178] identified a striking class of such paradoxes, known as logical pre- and post-selection paradoxes, and showed that they are indirectly connected with contextuality. By analysing the measurement-disturbance required in models of these phenomena, we find that the strong measurement version of logical pre- and post-selection paradoxes actually constitute a direct manifestation of quantum contextuality. The proof hinges on under-appreciated features of the paradoxes. In particular, we show by example that it is not possible to prove contextuality without Luders-von Neumann updates for the intermediate measurements, nonorthogonal pre- and post-selection, and 0/1 probabilities for the intermediate measurements. Since one of us has recently shown that anomalous weak values are also a direct manifestation of contextuality [arXiv:1409.1535], we now know that this is true for both realizations of logical pre- and post-selection paradoxes.

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Why protective measurement does not establish the reality of the quantum state

"Protective measurement" refers to two related schemes for finding the expectation value of an observable without disturbing the state of a quantum system, given a single copy of the system that is subject to a "protecting" operation. There have been several claims that these schemes support interpreting the quantum state as an objective property of a single quantum system. Here we provide three counter-arguments, each of which we present in two versions tailored to the two different schemes. Our first argument shows that the same resources used in protective measurement can be used to reconstruct the quantum state in a different way via process tomography. Our second argument is based on exact analyses of special cases of protective measurement, and our final argument is to construct explicit "$ψ$-epistemic" toy models for protective measurement, which strongly suggest that protective measurement does not imply the reality of the quantum state. The common theme of the three arguments is that almost all of the information comes from the "protection" operation rather than the quantum state of the system, and hence the schemes have no implications for the reality of the quantum state.

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An experimental test of noncontextuality without unwarranted idealizations

To make precise the sense in which nature fails to respect classical physics, one requires a formal notion of classicality. Ideally, such a notion should be defined operationally, so that it can be subjected to a direct experimental test, and it should be applicable in a wide variety of experimental scenarios, so that it can cover the breadth of phenomena that are thought to defy classical understanding. Bell's notion of local causality fulfills the first criterion but not the second. The notion of noncontextuality fulfills the second criterion, but it is a long-standing question whether it can be made to fulfill the first. Previous attempts to experimentally test noncontextuality have all presumed certain idealizations that do not hold in real experiments, namely, noiseless measurements and exact operational equivalences. We here show how to devise tests that are free of these idealizations. We also perform a photonic implementation of one such test that rules out noncontextual models with high confidence.

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Verifying the quantumness of a channel with an untrusted device

Suppose one wants to certify that a quantum channel is not entanglement-breaking. I consider all four combinations of trusted and untrusted devices at the input and output of the channel, finding that the most interesting is a trusted preparation device at the input and an untrusted measurement device at the output. This provides a time-like analogue of EPR-steering, which turns out to reduce to the problem of joint measurability, connecting these concepts in a different way to other recent work. I suggest a few applications of this connection, such as a resource theory of incompatibility. This perspective also sheds light on why the BB84 key distribution protocol can be secure even with an untrusted measuring device, leading to an uncertainty relation for arbitrary pairs of ensembles.

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Theory-independent limits on correlations from generalised Bayesian networks

Bayesian networks provide a powerful tool for reasoning about probabilistic causation, used in many areas of science. They are, however, intrinsically classical. In particular, Bayesian networks naturally yield the Bell inequalities. Inspired by this connection, we generalise the formalism of classical Bayesian networks in order to investigate non-classical correlations in arbitrary causal structures. Our framework of `generalised Bayesian networks' replaces latent variables with the resources of any generalised probabilistic theory, most importantly quantum theory, but also, for example, Popescu-Rohrlich boxes. We obtain three main sets of results. Firstly, we prove that all of the observable conditional independences required by the classical theory also hold in our generalisation; to obtain this, we extend the classical $d$-separation theorem to our setting. Secondly, we find that the theory-independent constraints on probabilities can go beyond these conditional independences. For example we find that no probabilistic theory predicts perfect correlation between three parties using only bipartite common causes. Finally, we begin a classification of those causal structures, such as the Bell scenario, that may yield a separation between classical, quantum and general-probabilistic correlations.

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Anomalous Weak Values Are Proofs of Contextuality

The average result of a weak measurement of some observable $A$ can, under post-selection of the measured quantum system, exceed the largest eigenvalue of $A$. The nature of weak measurements, as well as the presence of post-selection and hence possible contribution of measurement-disturbance, has led to a long-running debate about whether or not this is surprising. Here, it is shown that such "anomalous weak values" are non-classical in a precise sense: a sufficiently weak measurement of one constitutes a proof of contextuality. This clarifies, for example, which features must be present (and in an experiment, verified) to demonstrate an effect with no satisfying classical explanation.

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Quantum Steering Ellipsoids

The quantum steering ellipsoid of a two-qubit state is the set of Bloch vectors that Bob can collapse Alice's qubit to, considering all possible measurements on his qubit. We provide an elementary construction of the ellipsoid for arbitrary states, calculate its volume, and explain how this geometric representation can be made faithful. The representation provides a range of new results, and uncovers new features, such as the existence of "incomplete steering" in separable states. We show that entanglement can be analysed in terms of three geometric features of the ellipsoid, and prove that a state is separable if and only if it obeys a "nested tetrahedron" condition.

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