Nonclassicality in correlations without causal order

Abstract

Bell scenarios are multipartite scenarios that exclude any signalling between parties. This leads to a strict hierarchy of classical, quantum, and non-signalling correlations in such scenarios. Here we consider a minimal relaxation of non-signalling: each party is allowed to receive a system once, implement any local intervention on it, and send out the resulting system once. Crucially, unlike Bell, we make no global assumption about causal relations between parties, e.g., they could be embedded in some exotic spacetime with indefinite causal order. We do make a causal assumption local to each party, i.e., the input received by it causally precedes the output it sends out. We then ask: Can we device-independently certify the nonclassicality of multipartite correlations in such scenarios, just as Bell inequality violations do so in Bell scenarios? A priori, this is not clear: without some assumptions on the underlying physics (e.g., non-signalling), parties can realize arbitrary correlations. We therefore make a minimal assumption of logical consistency on the underlying physics, i.e., it must be free of time-travel antinomies without imposing any restrictions on local interventions of the parties. We then define antinomicity as a device-independent notion of nonclassicality and prove a strict hierarchy between correlation sets based on their antinomicity. An antinomic correlation cannot be explained by a classical physical theory compatible with free local interventions on pain of logical contradictions in the theory. On the other hand, parties exchanging quantum systems can witness antinomicity while respecting logical consistency. Antinomicity reduces to Bell nonlocality for non-signalling parties. It also resolves a conceptual puzzle, namely, the failure of causal inequalities as witnesses of nonclassicality: antinomicity implies causal inequality violations, but not conversely.