English

Optimal statistical analyses of Bell experiments

Quantum Physics 2023-05-03 v4

Abstract

We show how both smaller and more reliable p-values can be computed in Bell-type experiments by using statistical deviations from no-signalling equalities to reduce statistical noise in the estimation of Bell's S or Eberhard's J. Further improvement is obtained by using Wilks' likelihood ratio test based on the four tetranomially distributed vectors of counts of the four different outcome combinations, one 4-vector for each of the four setting combinations. The methodology is illustrated by application to the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2015 and 2016 performed in Delft and Munich, at NIST, and in Vienna respectively; and also to the earlier Innsbruck experiment of Weihs et al. (1998) and the recent Munich experiment of Zhang et al. (2022), which investigates use of a loophole-free Bell experiment as part of a protocol for Device Independent Quantum Key Distribution, DIQKD.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.00702,
  title  = {Optimal statistical analyses of Bell experiments},
  author = {Richard D. Gill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.00702},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

16 pages. Version 4: added a section with a potted history of Bell experiments in order to give a useful bibliography and a starting point for those wanting to learn more about the physics context

R2 v1 2026-06-28T00:35:52.109Z