Challenging local realism with human choices
Abstract
A Bell test is a randomized trial that compares experimental observations against the philosophical worldview of local realism. A Bell test requires spatially distributed entanglement, fast and high-efficiency detection and unpredictable measurement settings. Although technology can satisfy the first two of these requirements, the use of physical devices to choose settings in a Bell test involves making assumptions about the physics that one aims to test. Bell himself noted this weakness in using physical setting choices and argued that human `free will' could be used rigorously to ensure unpredictability in Bell tests. Here we report a set of local-realism tests using human choices, which avoids assumptions about predictability in physics. We recruited about 100,000 human participants to play an online video game that incentivizes fast, sustained input of unpredictable selections and illustrates Bell-test methodology. The participants generated 97,347,490 binary choices, which were directed via a scalable web platform to 12 laboratories on five continents, where 13 experiments tested local realism using photons, single atoms, atomic ensembles, and superconducting devices. Over a 12-hour period on 30 November 2016, participants worldwide provided a sustained data flow of over 1,000 bits per second to the experiments, which used different human-generated data to choose each measurement setting. The observed correlations strongly contradict local realism and other realistic positions in bipartite and tripartite scenarios. Project outcomes include closing the `freedom-of-choice loophole' (the possibility that the setting choices are influenced by `hidden variables' to correlate with the particle properties), the utilization of video-game methods for rapid collection of human generated randomness, and the use of networking techniques for global participation in experimental science.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.04431,
title = {Challenging local realism with human choices},
author = {The BIG Bell Test Collaboration and C. Abellán and A. Acín and A. Alarcón and O. Alibart and C. K. Andersen and F. Andreoli and A. Beckert and F. A. Beduini and A. Bendersky and M. Bentivegna and P. Bierhorst and D. Burchardt and A. Cabello and J. Cariñe and S. Carrasco and G. Carvacho and D. Cavalcanti and R. Chaves and J. Cortés-Vega and A. Cuevas and A. Delgado and H. de Riedmatten and C. Eichler and P. Farrera and J. Fuenzalida and M. García-Matos and R. Garthoff and S. Gasparinetti and T. Gerrits and F. Ghafari Jouneghani and S. Glancy and E. S. Gómez and P. González and J. -Y. Guan and J. Handsteiner and J. Heinsoo and G. Heinze and A. Hirschmann and O. Jiménez and F. Kaiser and E. Knill and L. T. Knoll and S. Krinner and P. Kurpiers and M. A. Larotonda and J. -Å. Larsson and A. Lenhard and H. Li and M. -H. Li and G. Lima and B. Liu and Y. Liu and I. H. López Grande and T. Lunghi and X. Ma and O. S. Magaña-Loaiza and P. Magnard and A. Magnoni and M. Martí-Prieto and D. Martínez and P. Mataloni and A. Mattar and M. Mazzera and R. P. Mirin and M. W. Mitchell and S. Nam and M. Oppliger and J. -W. Pan and R. B. Patel and G. J. Pryde and D. Rauch and K. Redeker and D. Rieländer and M. Ringbauer and T. Roberson and W. Rosenfeld and Y. Salathé and L. Santodonato and G. Sauder and T. Scheidl and C. T. Schmiegelow and F. Sciarrino and A. Seri and L. K. Shalm and S. -C. Shi and S. Slussarenko and M. J. Stevens and S. Tanzilli and F. Toledo and J. Tura and R. Ursin and P. Vergyris and V. B. Verma and T. Walter and A. Wallraff and Z. Wang and H. Weinfurter and M. M. Weston and A. G. White and C. Wu and G. B. Xavier and L. You and X. Yuan and A. Zeilinger and Q. Zhang and W. Zhang and J. Zhong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.04431},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
This version includes minor changes resulting from reviewer and editorial input. Abstract shortened to fit within arXiv limits