The paper argues that Leggett-Garg inequalities cannot be violated by any projective measurement when correlators are defined on measurement device outcomes, and that experimental violations arise from inconsistent assumptions about non-invasive measurability.
Neither weak nor strong entropic Leggett-Garg inequalities can be violated
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abstract
The Leggett-Garg inequalities probe the classical-quantum boundary by putting limits on the sum of pairwise correlation functions between classical measurement devices that consecutively measured the same quantum system. The apparent violation of these inequalities by standard quantum measurements has cast doubt on quantum mechanics' ability to consistently describe classical objects. Recent work has concluded that these inequalities cannot be violated by either strong or weak projective measurements [1]. Here I consider an entropic version of the Leggett-Garg inequalities that are different from the standard inequalities yet similar in form, and can be defined without reference to any particular observable. I find that the entropic inequalities also cannot be be violated by strong quantum measurements. The entropic inequalities can be extended to describe weak quantum measurements, and I show that these weak entropic Leggett-Garg inequalities cannot be violated either even though the quantum system remains unprojected, because the inequalities describe the classical measurement devices, not the quantum system. I conclude that quantum mechanics adequately describes classical devices, and that we should be careful not to assume that the classical devices accurately describe the quantum system.
fields
quant-ph 1years
2019 1verdicts
REJECT 1representative citing papers
citing papers explorer
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Leggett-Garg inequalities cannot be violated in quantum measurements
The paper argues that Leggett-Garg inequalities cannot be violated by any projective measurement when correlators are defined on measurement device outcomes, and that experimental violations arise from inconsistent assumptions about non-invasive measurability.