Proposed experiment to test fundamentally binary theories

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feasible experimental test to falsify fundamentally binary theories, which are alternative non-quantum models, by using Bell-type experiments on entangled qutrits and introduces inequalities distinguishing quantum n-ary correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a practical Bell-type experiment to test fundamentally binary theories and proves quantum n-ary correlations cannot be explained by these theories.

Findings

Fundamentally binary theories are experimentally testable with current technology.

Quantum n-ary correlations violate inequalities valid for fundamentally (n-1)-ary theories.

A family of inequalities distinguishes quantum correlations from fundamentally binary theories.

Abstract

Fundamentally binary theories are nonsignaling theories in which measurements of many outcomes are constructed by selecting from binary measurements. They constitute a sensible alternative to quantum theory and have never been directly falsified by any experiment. Here we show that fundamentally binary theories are experimentally testable with current technology. For that, we identify a feasible Bell-type experiment on pairs of entangled qutrits. In addition, we prove that, for any n, quantum n-ary correlations are not fundamentally (n-1)-ary. For that, we introduce a family of inequalities that hold for fundamentally (n-1)-ary theories but are violated by quantum n-ary correlations.