Ambiguous measurements, signalling and violations of Leggett-Garg inequalities

Abstract

Ambiguous measurements do not reveal complete information about the system under test. Their quantum-mechanical counterparts are semi-weak (or in the limit, weak-) measurements and here we discuss their role in tests of the Leggett-Garg inequalities. We show that, whilst ambiguous measurements allow one to forgo the usual non-invasive measureability assumption, to derive an LGI that may be violated, we are forced to introduce another assumption that equates the invasive influence of ambiguous and unambiguous detectors. Based on this assumption, we derive signalling conditions that should be fulfilled for the plausibility of the Leggett-Garg test. We then propose an experiment on a three-level system with a direct quantum-optics realisation that satisfies all signalling constraints and violates a Leggett-Garg inequality.

9 pages; 4 figures

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