Nonlocality of Quantum States can be Transitive
Pith reviewed 2026-05-23 06:42 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Nonlocality of quantum states can be transitive, with two nonlocal bipartite marginals forcing nonlocality in the third.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
By leveraging Bell-inequality violation by tensoring, we analytically construct a pair of nonlocal bipartite states such that simultaneously realizing them in a tripartite system induces nonlocality in the remaining bipartite subsystem. We also prove that multiple copies of the W-state marginals uniquely determine the global compatible state. The nonlocality transitivity of quantum states occurs among the reduced states of Haar-random three-qutrit pure states, and the transitivity of quantum steering can already be demonstrated with the marginals of a three-qubit W state.
What carries the argument
The analytically constructed pair of nonlocal bipartite states that can be realized as marginals of a tripartite quantum state to induce nonlocality in the third pair.
If this is right
- Nonlocality transitivity occurs among the reduced states of Haar-random three-qutrit pure states.
- The transitivity of quantum steering can be demonstrated with the marginals of a three-qubit W state.
- A simple method constructs quantum states and correlations that are nonlocal in all their non-unipartite marginals.
- Multiple copies of the W-state marginals uniquely determine the global compatible state.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- The uniqueness result for W-state marginals may extend to other families of entangled states and limit how much freedom global states have.
- The construction technique could be adapted to produce examples of transitivity for other multipartite correlation types.
- Experimental tests with few-qubit systems would directly check whether the predicted induced nonlocality appears in the laboratory.
- This form of transitivity might supply a new diagnostic for detecting multipartite entanglement from pairwise measurements alone.
Load-bearing premise
The chosen nonlocal bipartite states can be realized simultaneously as marginals of a single tripartite quantum state while the induced nonlocality on the third pair is preserved.
What would settle it
A proof that no tripartite quantum state exists whose marginals include the constructed pair and still make the third marginal nonlocal.
Figures
read the original abstract
As a striking manifestation of quantum entanglement, nonlocality has long played a pivotal role in shaping our understanding of the quantum world. When considering a Bell test involving three parties, we may even find a remarkable situation where the nonlocality in two bipartite subsystems {\em forces} the remaining bipartite subsystem to exhibit nonlocality. This intriguing effect, dubbed nonlocality transitivity, was first identified in the non-quantum non-signaling world in 2011. However, whether such transitivity could manifest within quantum theory has remained unresolved -- until now. Here, we provide the first affirmative answer to this open problem at the level of quantum states, thereby showing that there exists a quantum-realizable notion of nonlocality transitivity. Specifically, by leveraging the possibility of Bell-inequality violation by tensoring, we analytically construct a pair of nonlocal bipartite states such that simultaneously realizing them in a tripartite system induces nonlocality in the remaining bipartite subsystem. En route to showing this, we also prove that multiple copies of the $W$-state marginals uniquely determine the global compatible state, thus establishing another instance when the parts determine the whole. Surprisingly, the nonlocality transitivity of quantum states also occurs among the reduced states of Haar-random three-qutrit pure states. We further show that the transitivity of quantum steering can already be demonstrated with the marginals of a three-qubit $W$ state, showing again another noteworthy difference between the two forms of quantum correlations. Finally, we present a simple method to construct quantum states and correlations that are nonlocal in all their non-unipartite marginals, which may be of independent interest.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript claims to resolve an open question by providing the first explicit analytical construction of quantum states exhibiting nonlocality transitivity: two nonlocal bipartite states ρ_AB and ρ_BC (built via Bell-inequality violation under tensoring) are realized as marginals of a single tripartite state ρ_ABC, inducing nonlocality in the remaining marginal ρ_AC. Supporting results include a uniqueness theorem showing that multiple copies of W-state marginals determine the global tripartite state, occurrence of the transitivity effect in Haar-random three-qutrit states, transitivity of steering already for the three-qubit W state, and a general method for constructing states nonlocal in all non-unipartite marginals.
Significance. If the central construction is verified, the result is significant: it supplies the first quantum-realizable example of nonlocality transitivity, closing a question left open since the 2011 non-signaling result. The W-state uniqueness theorem is a clean, independent contribution establishing a case where parts determine the whole. The random-state observation indicates the phenomenon is not isolated, and the steering example highlights a distinction between correlation types. The constructions are analytical and leverage standard tools (tensoring of Bell violations, quantum marginals), making them potentially reproducible.
major comments (2)
- [main construction section] Main construction (the section presenting the analytical pair of states and the tripartite extension): the existence of a tripartite quantum state whose reductions exactly match the chosen nonlocal ρ_AB and ρ_BC while simultaneously rendering ρ_AC nonlocal is the load-bearing step for the transitivity claim. The manuscript must explicitly exhibit the tripartite state (or the extension map) and verify both marginal compatibility and the induced nonlocality on the third pair; without this, the tensoring-based construction of the bipartite marginals alone does not establish the result.
- [W-state uniqueness theorem] W-state uniqueness result (the theorem and proof that multiple copies of the W marginals fix the global state): while independent of the transitivity claim, the manuscript should clarify whether this uniqueness is invoked to guarantee the tripartite extension in the main construction or stands alone; if the former, the dependence must be stated explicitly.
minor comments (3)
- Notation for the constructed states (ρ_AB, ρ_BC, ρ_AC) should be introduced with an explicit equation number at first use and kept consistent throughout.
- The abstract and introduction cite the 2011 non-signaling result but should add a reference to the specific paper that posed the quantum version of the transitivity question.
- Figure captions for any plots of Bell violation values or random-state statistics should include the precise number of samples and the Bell inequality used.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for their careful reading of the manuscript and for the constructive comments. We address each major comment below. Both points can be resolved by adding explicit details and clarifications; we will incorporate these changes in the revised version.
read point-by-point responses
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Referee: [main construction section] Main construction (the section presenting the analytical pair of states and the tripartite extension): the existence of a tripartite quantum state whose reductions exactly match the chosen nonlocal ρ_AB and ρ_BC while simultaneously rendering ρ_AC nonlocal is the load-bearing step for the transitivity claim. The manuscript must explicitly exhibit the tripartite state (or the extension map) and verify both marginal compatibility and the induced nonlocality on the third pair; without this, the tensoring-based construction of the bipartite marginals alone does not establish the result.
Authors: We agree that the tripartite state must be exhibited explicitly for the claim to be fully substantiated. Our analytical construction proceeds by selecting bipartite marginals ρ_AB and ρ_BC that admit a unique tripartite extension (via the W-state uniqueness result) whose third marginal ρ_AC violates a Bell inequality. In the revised manuscript we will add an explicit presentation of the tripartite density operator, direct verification that its reductions recover the chosen ρ_AB and ρ_BC, and a calculation confirming that ρ_AC violates the relevant Bell inequality. revision: yes
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Referee: [W-state uniqueness theorem] W-state uniqueness result (the theorem and proof that multiple copies of the W marginals fix the global state): while independent of the transitivity claim, the manuscript should clarify whether this uniqueness is invoked to guarantee the tripartite extension in the main construction or stands alone; if the former, the dependence must be stated explicitly.
Authors: The referee is correct that the dependence is not stated with sufficient clarity. The W-state uniqueness theorem is used to guarantee the existence and uniqueness of the tripartite extension in the main construction. We will revise the text to state this dependence explicitly, both when the theorem is introduced and when it is applied in the construction section. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No significant circularity; explicit analytical construction is self-contained
full rationale
The paper's central result is an explicit analytical construction of nonlocal bipartite marginals ρ_AB and ρ_BC (leveraging Bell-inequality violation by tensoring) such that a tripartite extension exists with the induced ρ_AC also nonlocal. The W-state uniqueness result is proven internally in this work ('we also prove that multiple copies of the W-state marginals uniquely determine the global compatible state'), not imported via self-citation. No equations reduce the target nonlocality transitivity to a fitted parameter, self-definition, or prior author result by construction. The derivation chain is independent of the inputs it claims to derive.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
axioms (2)
- domain assumption Bell inequality violations can be amplified by tensoring certain quantum states
- domain assumption Multiple copies of W-state marginals uniquely determine the compatible global state
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
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[1]
( 6a) to ( 6c), respectively, as ⃗PBC, ⃗PAC, and ⃗PAB
holds, we may simi- larly define the marginal conditional probabilities arising from 3 either side of Eqs. ( 6a) to ( 6c), respectively, as ⃗PBC, ⃗PAC, and ⃗PAB. To ease notation, we again denote the set of correlations respecting the NS conditions of Eq. ( 6) as N S, even though it is clear that the NS set to which ⃗PABC belongs is different from the one ...
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[2]
They are both Bell-nonlocal, i.e., ̸∈ L
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[3]
( 6), the corresponding marginal ⃗P ′ AC is also Bell-nonlocal
For all tripartite NS correlations ⃗P ′ ABC that return ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC as marginals via Eq. ( 6), the corresponding marginal ⃗P ′ AC is also Bell-nonlocal. Importantly, Definition 1 does not require any of the cor- relations ⃗PAB, ⃗PBC (or ⃗P ′ ABC) to be quantum realizable via Eq. (2) (or its tripartite analog). More formally, if we denote by ⃗P ′ AC the A...
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[4]
v-causal model generates Bell-nonlocal correlations only if the finite-speed causal influence arrives in time
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[5]
v-causal model only produces NS correlations
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[6]
Defi- nition 1, in the spacetime configuration shown in Fig
v-causal model generates Bell-nonlocal ⃗PAB and Bell- nonlocal ⃗PBC exhibiting nonlocal transitivity, cf. Defi- nition 1, in the spacetime configuration shown in Fig. 1. The first assumption above is the working hypothesis of v- causal models for finite v; the second assumption embodies the requirement that these influences are also hidden in the sense that th...
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[8]
Note that the second condition above implies that both ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC are quantum realizable via Eq
They can be recovered as the marginals of a tripartite quantum correlation ⃗PABC. Note that the second condition above implies that both ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC are quantum realizable via Eq. ( 2). Hence, the pair of compatible ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC satisfy Definition 2 if and only if (⃗PAB, ⃗PBC ̸∈ L ) ∧ (⃗P ′ AC ̸∈ L ∀ ⃗P ′ ABC ∈ C N S) ∧ (CQ ̸= ∅), (8) where CQ is the co...
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[9]
will only imply that the tripartite distribution ⃗PABC produced by these models is nec- essarily not quantum, rather than signaling. Since thev-causal model—in contrast with quantum theory—produces correla- tions that depend on the spacetime configuration, the deviation of its prediction from quantum theory is arguably not surpri s- ing after all. B. Trans...
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[10]
They are both nonlocal
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[11]
For all tripartite state ρ′ ABC that returns ρAB andρBC as reduced states, the corresponding reduced state ρ′ AC is also nonlocal. Let C be the set of all states in ABC that return bothρAB and ρBC by partial tracing, respectively, over C and A. Moreover, let DL be the set of local (i.e., non-Bell-inequality-violating) states. Then the conditions of Definit...
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[12]
Then, by adopt- ing exactly the same local measurements, we get ⃗P ′ AB = ⃗PAB, ⃗P ′ BC = ⃗PBC, but P ′ AC(a,c |x,z ) = ∑ b tr(ρ′ ABCM A a|x ⊗ M B b|y ⊗ M C c|z), = tr(ρ′ ACM A a|x ⊗ M C c|z). (13) However, since ρ′ AC ∈ D L, we must have ⃗P ′ AC ∈ L , which contradicts the second requirement of Definition 1, and hence also the first requirement of Definitio...
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[13]
Both constructions presented here exploit th is uniqueness property of the input bipartite marginals
In particular, if the latter uniquely determines the global co m- patible state, then the property of AC can also be deduced accordingly. Both constructions presented here exploit th is uniqueness property of the input bipartite marginals. A. An analytic construction
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[14]
Copies of two-body marginals of the W -state determine the global state uniquely Let us begin by considering the n-qubitW state [ 50]: |Wn⟩ = 1√ n (|10 · · ·0⟩ + |010 · · ·0⟩ + · · · |0 · · ·01⟩). (23) Any two-qubit reduced state of |Wn⟩ is easily shown to be: τn := 2 n |Ψ+⟩ ⟨Ψ+|+ n − 2 n |00⟩ ⟨00|, (24) where |Ψ± ⟩ = 1√ 2 (|01⟩ ± | 10⟩). Conversely, for ...
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[15]
Bell-nonlocality transitivity of quantum states We are now ready to present our first examples of quantum nonlocality transitivity, which consist of examples of marginal states exhibiting nonlocality transitivity for quantum st ates, cf. Definition 3. Theorem 3 (Bell-nonlocality transitivity) . F or every integer k larger than some threshold value kc ∈ N, t...
work page 2056
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[16]
While our analytic examples appear challenging in their realization, it is interesting to note that the reduced stat es of Haar-random three-qutrit pure states, with a probability of ≈ 11. 4%, also exhibit the same kind of transitivity property. However, at this point in writing, we still do not know whether the reduced states of any three-qubit states ca...
work page 2015
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[17]
A family of qubit-qutrit-qubit states The candidate tripartite pure states of [ 28] are: |Ψ(α )⟩ = cosα |021⟩ + |120⟩√ 2 + sinα |000⟩ + |111⟩√ 2 , (A1) whereα ∈ (0, π 2 ). Let ρABC(α ) = |Ψ(α )⟩ ⟨Ψ(α )|, |Ψ1(α )⟩ = sinα |00⟩ + cos α |12⟩, |Ψ2(α )⟩ = sin α |11⟩ + cos α |02⟩, and Πij := |i,j ⟩ ⟨i,j |. As shown in [ 28], the only tripartite quantum state ρ′ ...
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[18]
A family of three-qubit states The candidate tripartite pure states of [ 16] are: |Ψ(µ )⟩ =µ |000⟩ + √ 1 − µ 2 2 (|110⟩ + |011⟩), (A4) where we take µ ∈ [0, 1]. As with the last example, Eq. ( A2) holds. Moreover, numerically, we have found that the only tri- partite state compatible with these marginals is the three- qubit pure state of Eq. ( A4). On the...
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3779;ρAB is also symmetric-extendible to two A ’s for all values of µ
4472, andµ 4B≈ 0. 3779;ρAB is also symmetric-extendible to two A ’s for all values of µ
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[20]
Three-qutrit state from [ 32] The candidate three-qutrit pure state from [ 32] reads as |ψ ⟩ =a|000⟩ +b(|012⟩ + |201⟩ + |120⟩). (A7) After partial tracing out any of the parties, we get ρAB =ρBC =ρCA = (1 − 2b2)|ψ θ ⟩ ⟨ψ θ |+b2(|01⟩ ⟨01|+ |20⟩ ⟨20|) (A8) where |ψ θ⟩ = cosθ|00⟩ + sinθ|12⟩ andb2 = sin2 θ 2 sin2 θ+1 . For θ ∈ (0, π 2 ), it was shown in [ 32]...
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[21]
Werner states marginals Apart from the Haar-random three-qudit pure states dis- cussed in Section V B, it was also shown in [25] that ifρAB and ρBC are high-dimensional entangled Werner states [43]W d(v) withvAB andvBC satisyfing some polynomial constraints, the resultingρ′ AC must again be entangled. However, no higher- dimensional Werner states are curre...
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8571, confirming that (the marginals ⃗PAB from) their ex- ample is not quantum realizable. In particular, since Q1 is precisely the set of correlations satisfying the principle of macroscopic locality proposed in [ 41], the marginals of the example from [ 26] are incompatible with this principle. In a 11 similar manner, one can also show that the example g...
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[23]
Definition 4 (Nonlocality transitivity of quantum marginals)
Nonlocality transitivity of quantum marginal correlati ons Instead of Definition 2, one might also be tempted to adopt the following definition for quantum nonlocality transitiv ity. Definition 4 (Nonlocality transitivity of quantum marginals) . The pair of compatible marginals ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC exhibits non- locality transitivity of quantum marginals if
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They satisfy Definition 1
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They are both quantum realizable, i.e., ⃗PAB, ⃗PBC ∈ Q . In particular, one may think that if⃗PAB and ⃗PBC are compat- ible, i.e., there exists ⃗PABC ∈ N S that returns both of them as marginals via Eq. (6), and if these marginals are quantum real- izable, then one can also find ⃗PABC ∈ Q that returns both ⃗PAB and ⃗PBC as marginals. However, this intuitio...
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Steering and entanglement transitivity of quantum state s The problem of determining if compatible reduced states ρAB andρBC exhibit nonlocality transitivity is an instance of a resource marginal problem [ 78]. In this regard, another closely related notion of nonlocality transitivity, which can be seen as a relaxation of Definition 3, can also be defined b...
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ρAB is steerable from A to B
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ρBC is steerable from B to C
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The mathematical expression corresponding to Definition 5 is completely analogous to Eq
For all tripartite state ρ′ ABC that return ρAB and ρBC as reduced states, the corresponding reduced state ρ′ AC is steerable from A to C. The mathematical expression corresponding to Definition 5 is completely analogous to Eq. ( 10), except that we replace DL by the set of unsteerable states. Since only entangled quantum states can be nonlocal [ 43] or st...
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They are both entangled
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For all tripartite state ρ′ ABC that returns ρAB andρBC as reduced states, the corresponding reduced state ρ′ AC is also entangled. We summarize the relationship between all these Defini- tions in Fig. 7. Post-Quantum- Embracing Realm Quantum Realm Def. 1 [26] Def. 4 (open) Def. 2 (open) Def. 3 (this work) Def. 5 (this work) Def. 6 [25] FIG. 7. Summary of ...
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Proof of Lemma 2 In the following, we give the proof of Lemma 2, which concerns the uniqueness of a global state compatible with th e specification of (n − 1) two-body marginals of |Wn⟩⊗ k for any integerk ≥ 1. Proof. Let {|i⟩ : i = 0, 1,...,d − 1} be the standard basis for each party, where d = 2 k. Mathematically, each local d-dimensional Hilbert space i...
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A B C n. . . S1 1 S1 2 S1 3 S1 n. . . S2 1 S2 2 S2 3 S2 n. . . Sk 1 Sk 2 Sk 3 Sk n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . τn τn τn . . . τn τn τn . . . τn τn τn . . . τn τn τn . . . FIG. 8. Schematic representation of the 2kn-dimensional Hilbert space shared by n parties each holding k virtual qubits (vbits). Here Sm j refers to them-th vbit of thej-th party....
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Consider the two-qubit reduced state of a three-qubit W state |W3⟩, cf
Proof of Theorem 3 Proof. Consider the two-qubit reduced state of a three-qubit W state |W3⟩, cf. Eq. ( 24) withn = 3, τ3 = 2 3 |Ψ+⟩ ⟨Ψ+|+ 1 3 |00⟩ ⟨00|. (E12) LetρAB =ρBC =τ⊗ k 3 , i.e., thek copies ofτ3 for somek ∈ N. From Lemma 2, we know that the only tripartite global state compatible with these marginals is ρ′ ABC = (|W3⟩ ⟨W3|)⊗ k, which means that ...
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