Classical Physics and the Bounds of Quantum Correlations

Abstract

A unifying principle explaining the numerical bounds of quantum correlations remains elusive despite the efforts devoted to identifying it. Here we show that these bounds are indeed not exclusive to quantum theory: for any abstract correlation scenario with compatible measurements, models based on classical waves produce probability distributions indistinguishable from those of quantum theory and, therefore, share the same bounds. We demonstrate this finding by implementing classical microwaves that propagate along meter-size transmission-line circuits and reproduce the probabilities of three emblematic quantum experiments. Our results show that the "quantum" bounds would also occur in a classical universe without quanta. The implications of this observation are discussed.

5 pages + 7 pages of Supplemental Material. Published version

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• Directly Characterizing the Coherence of Quantum Detectors by Sequential Measurement
• Experimental tests of Multiplicative Bell Inequalities
• Non-Kochen-Specker Contextuality
• Bosonic Indistinguishability-Dependent Contextuality
• Tracing quantum correlations back to collective interferences
• Bell nonlocality with intensity information only
• Twenty years of quantum contextuality at USTC
• Quantum Contextual Hypergraphs, Operators, Inequalities, and Applications in Higher Dimensions
• Violation of Bell quantum probability inequalities with classical fields