Agnostic Detector Error, Wigner Functions, and the Classical Limit of the High-Spin Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Experiment

Abstract

The spin-$j$ Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment is studied with a view to understanding how classical behaviour emerges as $j \to \infty$. It is proposed that it is necessary to include detector error, which if it is be to viewed as an essential aspect of the emergence of classicality, should be both minimal, i.e., no more than necessary to wash out quantum mechanical behaviour, and agnostic, by which is meant that one should be able to ascribe it to error in the preparation of the state just as well as to the detector.Errors in the state preparation are discussed via the spin Wigner function. An agnostic error protocol is described which appears to be minimal.