A model independent study of nonlocality with polarization entangled photons

Abstract

Nonlocality as a fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics is witnessed by violation of Bell inequality or its variants, for which all relevant studies assume some correlations exhibited by local realistic theories. The strategy of Bell's theorem is to establish some criteria to distinguish local realistic theories from quantum mechanics with respect to the nonlocal nature of entangled systems. Here we propose a model independent study of nonlocality that needs not to assume any local theory since observation of the expected nonlocal effect is straightforward quantum mechanically. Our proposal involves a bipartite polarization-entangled system in which one photon immediately reduces into a circular-polarization (CP) state when its partner at a space-like distance is detected in another CP state. The state reduction of the photon can be mechanically monitored because a CP photon carries angular momentum and exerts a torque on a half-wave plate whose mechanical motion is measurable, which is well described by quantum mechanics and independent of any local realistic assumption.