Enhanced violations of Leggett-Garg inequalities in an experimental three-level system

Wang, Kunkun; Emary, Clive; Zhan, Xiang; Bian, Zhihao; Li, Jian; Xue, Peng

Abstract

Leggett-Garg inequalities are tests of macroscopic realism that can be violated by quantum mechanics. In this letter, we realise photonic Leggett-Garg tests on a three-level system and implement measurements that admit three distinct measurement outcomes, rather than the usual two. In this way we obtain violations of three- and four-time Leggett-Garg inequalities that are significantly in excess of those obtainable in standard Leggett-Garg tests. We also report violations the quantum-witness equality up to the maximum permitted for a three-outcome measurement. Our results highlight differences between spatial and temporal correlations in quantum mechanics.

Citation

Wang, K., Emary, C., Zhan, X., Bian, Z., Li, J., & Xue, P. (2017). Enhanced violations of Leggett-Garg inequalities in an experimental three-level system. Optics express, 25(25), 31462-31470. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.031462

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 10, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Dec 4, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 11, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 29, 2018
• Journal: Optics Express
• Print ISSN: 1094-4087
• Publisher: Optica
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 25
• Pages: 31462-31470
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.031462
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/897404
• Publisher URL: https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-25-25-31462
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: OSA - The Optical Society; Crossref DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.031462; Article type: research-article; Similarity check: Screened by Similarity Check; Peer reviewed: Yes; Review process: Single blind; Received: 17 October 2017; Accepted: 22 November 2017; Published: 4 December 2017; Copyright: © 2017 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
• Contract Date: Jun 27, 2018