Wednesday, November 7, 2012

1211.1179 (M. K. Patra et al.)

Experimentally probing the reality of the quantum state    [PDF]

M. K. Patra, L. Olislager, F. Duport, J. Safioui, S. Pironio, S. Massar
The quantum state is an abstract concept used to compute the probabilities of possible measurement outcomes in experiments. Whether it corresponds to some physical reality (i.e., is "ontic") or represents our knowledge of reality (i.e., is "epistemic") has been the subject of discussion since the inception of quantum theory. Assuming a natural continuity assumption and a separability assumption, we show here that epistemic interpretations of the quantum state are in contradiction with quantum theory. Our argument is different from the recent proof of Pusey, Barrett, and Rudolph and it already yields a non-trivial constraint on epistemic models using a single copy of the system in question. We then present a simple high-precision experiment based on high-dimensional attenuated coherent states of light travelling in an optical fibre which tests the predictions of such epistemic models. Our experimental results are in agreement with the predictions of quantum theory and provide strong constraints on possible epistemic extensions of quantum mechanics.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.1179

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