Bosonic fields in states with undefined particle numbers possess detectable non-contextuality features, plus more

Abstract

Most of the paradoxical, for the classical intuition, features of quantum theory were formulated for situations which involve a fixed number of particles. While one can now find a formulation of Bell's theorem for quantum fields, a Kochen-Specker-type reasoning is usually formulated for just one particle, or like in the case of Peres-Mermin square for two. A question emerges. Is it possible to formulate a contextuality proof for situation in which the numbers of particles are fundamentally undefined? We address this problem for bosonic fields. We introduce a representation of the $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ algebra in terms of boson number states in two modes that allows us to assess nonclassicality of states of bosonic fields. As a figure of merit of a nonclassical behaviour we analyze first of all contextuality, and we show that the introduced observables are handy and efficient to reveal violation of local realism, and to formulate entanglement indicators. We construct a method which extends the Kochen-Specker contextuality to bosonic quantum fields. A form of an inequality is derived using a suitable version of the Peres-Mermin square. The entanglement indicators use a witness built with specially defined Pauli-like observables. Finally, Bell-nonclassicality is discussed: an inequality that involves the expectation values of pairs of the Pauli-like operators is presented. The introduced indicators are shown to be effective, e.g. they reveal nonclassicality in situaations involving undefined boson numbers. This is shown via quantum optical examples of the $2\times 2$ bright squeezed vacuum state, and a recently discussed bright-GHZ state resulting from multiple three photon emissions in a parametric process.