Anomalous nonlocality of information masked in quantum correlations

TL;DR

The paper reveals that quantum correlations can carry a form of nonlocality allowing instantaneous decision to decode information at different locations without classical communication, without violating relativity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nonlocality of quantum correlations that enables instantaneously choosing where to decode information, distinct from traditional particle nonlocality.

Findings

Quantum correlations can exhibit nonlocality allowing instant decision-making.

Superluminal decoding is possible without violating special relativity.

Decoding location can be chosen independently of classical information.

Abstract

Although information, strictly speaking, is not a physical entity, it generally requires physical entities as its carriers, e.g., writing it down on paper, encoding it with quantum particles, or transmitting it using electro-magnetic fields. And it seems natural that these carriers cannot travel faster than light. Here we reveal that if we use quantum correlations as the carrier of information (either quantum or classical), then it can display a kind of nonlocality, which bears both similarities to and distinctions from the nonlocality of physical particles. Notably, though superluminal signaling is still not allowed so that the special relativity is not violated, it is possible to select at our will whether to decode the information at one location, or to dispatch it to another location far away (i.e., to give up the chance of decoding the information and let it be decodable in somewhere else only) without needing the assistance of classical information, so that it occurs instantaneously without being limited by the speed of light. This phenomenon differs sharply from the nonlocality of physical particles that we once knew, where whether a particle can be detected in one location or another is governed by quantum uncertainty, which cannot be chosen freely.