Violation of a Bell-like inequality in single-neutron interferometry

Hasegawa, Yuji; Loidl, Rudolf; Badurek, G.; Baron, M.; Rauch, H.

doi:10.1038/nature01881

Cited by 265 publications

(363 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It is thus quite hard to pin down what exactly a purported experimental test of contextuality proves, or could prove, that we do not know already. In our opinion, this key point is not adequately addressed in the papers under discussion (Cabello & García-Alcaine, 1998;Simon et al, 2000;Basu et al, 2001;Huang et al, 2003;Hasegawa et al, 2003).…”

Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…We examine in particular an experiment that has actually been performed, Huang et al (2003), inspired by a proposal of Simon et al (2000), in turn based on a scheme of Cabello & García-Alcaine (1998). (Another recent experiment is that of Hasegawa et al (2003), which is similar to a proposal of Basu et al (2001) -we do not discuss this in detail, since the same arguments apply). In Sec.…”

Section: Experimental Tests Of Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But this is crucial if we are to conclude unequivocally that contextuality is being exhibited. Similar comments apply to Hasegawa et al's experiment (Hasegawa et al, 2003): their spin rotator and phase shifter need to be adjusted to alter their parameters α and χ, and they naturally need to rely on the standard quantum formalism in order to interpret the experiment as carrying out measurements of particular projections onto the path and spin degrees of freedom.…”

Section: What Can An Experiments Tell Us About Contextuality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Quite a few experiments purporting to test contextuality have recently been proposed (Cabello & García-Alcaine, 1998;Simon et al, 2000;Basu et al, 2001) and performed (Huang et al, 2003;Hasegawa et al, 2003). Several authors have suggested an analogy between these purported experimental tests of contextuality and Bell experiments testing local causality.…”

Section: Querying the Scope Of The Ks Theoremmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CK models then show us that even if it is assumed that the operation of each experimental device is well described by the Hilbert space formalism, a non-contextual, classical simulation of the experiment is possible. 10 We make a brief remark about the experiment of Hasegawa et al (2003), and the proposal of Basu et al (2001). In both cases, an inequality is derived, formally identical to the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality (Clauser et al, 1969), that concerns the spin and path degrees of freedom of a single neutron.…”

Section: Experiments and Finite Precisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-contextuality, finite precision measurement and the Kochen–Specker theorem

Barrett

Kent

2004

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

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Meyer originally raised the question of whether non-contextual hidden variable models can, despite the Kochen-Specker theorem, simulate the predictions of quantum mechanics to within any fixed finite experimental precision (Meyer, D. 1999. Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 3751-3754). Meyer's result was extended by Kent (Kent, A. 1999. Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 3755-3757). Clifton and Kent later presented constructions of non-contextual hidden variable theories which, they argued, indeed simulate quantum mechanics in this way (Clifton, R and Kent, A. 2000. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 456, 2101-2114.These arguments have evoked some controversy. Among other things, it has been suggested that the Clifton-Kent models do not in fact reproduce correctly the predictions of quantum mechanics, even when finite precision is taken into account. It has also been suggested that careful analysis of the notion of contextuality in the context of finite precision measurement motivates definitions which imply that the Clifton-Kent 1 models are in fact contextual. Several critics have also argued that the issue can be definitively resolved by experimental tests of the KochenSpecker theorem or experimental demonstrations of the contextuality of Nature.One aim of this paper is to respond to and rebut criticisms of the Meyer-Clifton-Kent papers. We thus elaborate in a little more detail how the Clifton-Kent models can reproduce the predictions of quantum mechanics to arbitrary precision. We analyse in more detail the relationship between classicality, finite precision measurement and contextuality, and defend the claims that the Clifton-Kent models are both essentially classical and non-contextual. We also examine in more detail the senses in which a theory can be said to be contextual or non-contextual, and in which an experiment can be said to provide evidence on the point. In particular, we criticise the suggestion that a decisive experimental verification of contextuality is possible, arguing that the idea rests on a conceptual confusion.

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