Violation of Leggett-type inequalities in the spin-orbit degrees of freedom of a single photon

Filippo Cardano, Ebrahim Karimi, Lorenzo Marrucci, Corrado de Lisio, and Enrico Santamato
Phys. Rev. A 88, 032101 – Published 3 September 2013

Abstract

We report the experimental violation of Leggett-type inequalities for a hybrid entangled state of spin and orbital angular momentum of a single photon. These inequalities give a physical criterion to verify the possible validity of a class of hidden-variable theories, originally named “crypto nonlocal,” that are not excluded by the violation of Bell-type inequalities. In our case, the tested theories assume the existence of hidden variables associated with independent degrees of freedom of the same particle, while admitting the possibility of an influence between the two measurements, i.e., the so-called contextuality of observables. We observe a violation of the Leggett inequalities for a range of experimental inputs, with a maximum violation of seven standard deviations, thus ruling out this class of hidden-variable models with a high level of confidence.

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  • Received 5 April 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.032101

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Filippo Cardano1, Ebrahim Karimi1,*, Lorenzo Marrucci1,2, Corrado de Lisio1,2, and Enrico Santamato1,3

  • 1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Napoli, Italy
  • 2CNR-SPIN, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Napoli, Italy
  • 3Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia, Napoli, Italy

  • *Current address: Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 Canada; ekarimi@uottawa.ca

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Vol. 88, Iss. 3 — September 2013

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