Rights statement: Freely available online through the PNAS open access option
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Opening up three quantum boxes causes classically undetectable wavefunction collapse
AU - George, Richard
AU - Robledo, Lucio
AU - Maroney, Owen
AU - Blok, Machiel
AU - Bernien, Hannes
AU - Markham, Matthew
AU - Twitchen, Daniel
AU - Morton, John
AU - Briggs, Andrew
AU - Hanson, Ronald
N1 - Freely available online through the PNAS open access option
PY - 2013/3/5
Y1 - 2013/3/5
N2 - One of the most striking features of quantum mechanics is the profound effect exerted by measurements alone. Sophisticated quantum control is now available in several experimental systems, exposing discrepancies between quantum and classical mechanics whenever measurement induces disturbance of the interrogated system. In practice, such discrepancies may frequently be explained as the back-action required by quantum mechanics adding quantum noise to a classical signal. Here, we implement the “three-box” quantum game [Aharonov Y, et al. (1991) J Phys A Math Gen 24(10):2315–2328] by using state-of-the-art control and measurement of the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. In this protocol, the back-action of quantum measurements adds no detectable disturbance to the classical description of the game. Quantum and classical mechanics then make contradictory predictions for the same experimental procedure; however, classical observers are unable to invoke measurement-induced disturbance to explain the discrepancy. We quantify the residual disturbance of our measurements and obtain data that rule out any classical model by ≳7.8 standard deviations, allowing us to exclude the property of macroscopic state definiteness from our system. Our experiment is then equivalent to the test of quantum noncontextuality [Kochen S, Specker E (1967) J Math Mech 17(1):59–87] that successfully addresses the measurement detectability loophole.
AB - One of the most striking features of quantum mechanics is the profound effect exerted by measurements alone. Sophisticated quantum control is now available in several experimental systems, exposing discrepancies between quantum and classical mechanics whenever measurement induces disturbance of the interrogated system. In practice, such discrepancies may frequently be explained as the back-action required by quantum mechanics adding quantum noise to a classical signal. Here, we implement the “three-box” quantum game [Aharonov Y, et al. (1991) J Phys A Math Gen 24(10):2315–2328] by using state-of-the-art control and measurement of the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. In this protocol, the back-action of quantum measurements adds no detectable disturbance to the classical description of the game. Quantum and classical mechanics then make contradictory predictions for the same experimental procedure; however, classical observers are unable to invoke measurement-induced disturbance to explain the discrepancy. We quantify the residual disturbance of our measurements and obtain data that rule out any classical model by ≳7.8 standard deviations, allowing us to exclude the property of macroscopic state definiteness from our system. Our experiment is then equivalent to the test of quantum noncontextuality [Kochen S, Specker E (1967) J Math Mech 17(1):59–87] that successfully addresses the measurement detectability loophole.
KW - Leggett–Garg
KW - quantum contextuality
KW - quantum non-demolition measurement
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1208374110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1208374110
M3 - Journal article
VL - 110
SP - 3777
EP - 3781
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 10
ER -