Experimental implementations of quantum paradoxes

Abstract

Remarkable progress is being made in experiments that highlight the distinctive predictions of quantum mechanics. The Leggett-Garg inequality was devised to test for macrorealism (Leggett and Garg in Phys. Rev. Lett. 54:857-860, 1985). Various experiments have been performed, including one with non-invasive measurements in the kind of way that was originally envisaged, using spins in phosphorous impurities in silicon (Knee et al. in Nat. Commun. 3:606, 2012). This has led to fresh understanding of what kind of realism is excluded by the result. The quantum three-box paradox (Aharonov and Vaidman in J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 24:2315-2328, 1991) provides a further test, which can be re-expressed in terms of the Leggett-Garg inequality. This has been experimentally implemented with projective measurements using an NV-centre in diamond, yielding results 7.8 standard deviations beyond a classical bound (George et al. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110:3777-3781, 2013). [Editor’s note: for a video of the talk given by Prof. Briggs at the Aharonov-80 conference in 2012 at Chapman University, see quantum.chapman.edu/talk-18.]