Computer Science

 We consider the emergence of classical correlations in macroscopic quantum systems, and its connection to monogamy relations for violation of Bell-type inequalities. We work within the framework of Abramsky and Brandenburger [1], which provides a unified treatment of non-locality and contextuality in the general setting of no-signalling empirical models. General measurement scenarios are represented by simplicial complexes that capture the notion of compatibility of measurements. Monogamy and locality/noncontextuality of macroscopic correlations are revealed by our analysis as two sides of the same coin: macroscopic correlations are obtained by averaging along a symmetry (group action) on the simplicial complex of measurements, while monogamy relations are exactly the inequalities that are invariant with respect to that symmetry. Our results exhibit a structural reason for monogamy relations and consequently for the classicality of macroscopic correlations in the case of multipartite scenarios, shedding light on and generalising the results in [2,3].More specifically, we show that, however entangled the microscopic state of the system, and provided the number of particles in each site is large enough (with respect to the number of allowed measurements), only classical (local realistic) correlations will be observed macroscopically. The result depends only on the compatibility structure of the measurements (the simplicial complex), hence it applies generally to any no-signalling empirical model. The macroscopic correlations can be defined on the quotient of the simplicial complex by the symmetry that lumps together like microscopic measurements into macroscopic measurements. Given enough microscopic particles, the resulting complex satisfies a structural condition due to Vorob'ev [4] that is necessary and sufficient for any probabilistic model to be classical.  The generality of our scheme suggests a number of promising directions. In particular, they can be applied in more general scenarios to yield monogamy relations for contextuality inequalities and to study macroscopic non-contextuality.

[1] Samson Abramsky and Adam Brandenburger, The sheaf-theoretic structure of non-locality and contextuality, New Journal of Physics 13 (2011), no. 113036.
[2] MarcinPawłowski and Caslav Brukner, Monogamy of Bell’s inequality violations in nonsignaling theories, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009), no. 3, 030403.
[3] R. Ramanathan, T. Paterek, A. Kay, P. Kurzynski, and D. Kaszlikowski, Local realism of macroscopic correlations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011), no. 6, 060405.
[4] N.N.Vorob’ev, Consistent families of measures and their extensions, Theory of Probability and its Applications VII (1962), no. 2, 147–163, (translated by N. Greenleaf, Russian original published in Teoriya Veroyatnostei i ee Primeneniya).