Experimental test of nonlocal causality

Martin Ringbauer, Christina giarmatzi, Rafael Chaves, Fabio Costa, Andrew G. White, Alessandro Fedrizzi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)
60 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Explaining observations in terms of causes and effects is central to empirical science. However, correlations between entangled quantum particles seem to defy such an explanation. This implies that some of the fundamental assumptions of causal explanations have to give way. We consider a relaxation of one of these assumptions, Bell’s local causality, by allowing outcome dependence: a direct causal influence between the outcomes of measurements of remote parties. We use interventional data from a photonic experiment to bound the strength of this causal influence in a two-party Bell scenario, and observational data from a Bell-type inequality test for the considered models. Our results demonstrate the incompatibility of quantum mechanics with a broad class of nonlocal causal models, which includes Bell-local models as a special case. Recovering a classical causal picture of quantum correlations thus requires an even more radical modification of our classical notion of cause and effect.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1600162
JournalScience Advances
Volume2
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Aug 2016

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Experimental test of nonlocal causality'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this