Testing Born's Rule in Quantum Mechanics for Three Mutually Exclusive Events

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental method using a three-path interferometer to test Born's rule in quantum mechanics, achieving a tighter empirical upper bound on potential violations and addressing systematic errors like detector nonlinearities.

Contribution

It presents a novel experimental approach with improved bounds on violations of Born's rule and methods to calibrate systematic errors such as detector nonlinearities.

Findings

Tighter empirical upper bound on violations of Born's rule

Identification and calibration of detector nonlinearities

No observed deviation from Born's rule within experimental bounds

Abstract

We present a new experimental approach using a three-path interferometer and find a tighter empirical upper bound on possible violations of Born's Rule. A deviation from Born's rule would result in multi-order interference. Among the potential systematic errors that could lead to an apparent violation we specifically study the nonlinear response of our detectors and present ways to calibrate this error in order to obtain an even better bound.