Kochen-Specker theorem and experimental test on hidden variables

Abstract

A recent proposal to experimentally test quantum mechanics against noncontextual hidden-variable theories [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1797 (1998)] is shown to be related with the smallest proof of the Kochen-Specker theorem currently known [Phys. Lett. A 212, 183 (1996)]. This proof contains eighteen yes-no questions about a four-dimensional physical system, combined in nine mutually incompatible tests. When these tests are considered as tests about a two-part two-state system, then quantum mechanics and non-contextual hidden variables make the same predictions for eight of them, but make different predictions for the ninth. Therefore, this ninth test would allow us to discriminate between quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden-variable theories in a (gedanken) single run experiment.

4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. A

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• On Bell measurements for teleportation
• Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem: A proof with 18 vectors
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Cited by in corpus (8)

• An experimental test of noncontextuality without unwarranted idealizations
• The Characterization of Noncontextuality in the Framework of Generalized Probabilistic Theories
• Recursive proof of the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem in any dimension $n>3$
• Quantum Scholasticism: On Quantum Contexts, Counterfactuals, and the Absurdities of Quantum Omniscience
• What makes quantum clicks special?
• Quantum value indefiniteness
• Quantum Computers, Discrete Space, and Entanglement
• A Kochen-Specker system has at least 22 vectors (extended abstract)