Robust logical Bell nonlocality based on quantum error correction codes

Abstract

Quantum nonlocality based on the violation of Bell-like inequalities constitutes a fundamental feature of quantum physics and drives the development of device-independent (DI) quantum information technologies. Existing studies of Bell nonlocality have mainly focused on physical qubit systems, where the observed nonlocal correlations are directly encoded in physical degrees of freedom. The decoherence sensitivity of Bell nonlocality largely limits the performance and security of its DI applications. Here, we investigate the robust logical Bell nonlocality based on quantum error correction codes. We construct the general logical Bell inequality in the stabilizer coding subspace and prove its violation indicates the global nonlocal feature of the logical system. Then, we indicate that the logical Bell nonlocality is robust against decoherence. Comparing with the physical qubit system, the fidelity thresholds for the logical Bell inequality violation based on the [[3,1,1]] and [[7,1,1]] repetition codes under the bit-flip error model can be reduced from 82.8% to 73.10% and 66.35%, increasing DI QKD's bit-flip noise threshold from 10.64% to 14.42% and 23.36%, respectively. Such stabilizer-based framework can be also used to characterize the multipartite logical Bell nonlocality in principle. Finally, a logical Bell test implementation circuit based on the [[3,1,1]] repetition code is presented. This work provides a feasible avenue for unlocking robust Bell nonlocality in scalable logical quantum systems and facilitates its applications in future scalable quantum network.