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Quantum-mechanical correlations and Tsirelson bound from geometric algebra

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Abstract

The Bell–Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality can be used to show that no local hidden-variable theory can reproduce the correlations predicted by quantum mechanics (QM). It can be proved that certain QM correlations lead to a violation of the classical bound established by the inequality, while all correlations, QM and classical, respect a QM bound (the Tsirelson bound). Here, we show that these well-known results depend crucially on the assumption that the values of physical magnitudes are scalars. More specifically, the assumption that these values are not scalars, but vectors that are elements of the geometric algebra G\(^{{\mathbf {3}}}\) over R\(^{{\mathbf {3}}}\), makes it possible that the classical bound is violated and the QM bound respected, even given a locality assumption.The result implies, first, that the origin of the Tsirelson bound is geometrical, not physical; and, second, that a local hidden-variable theory does not contradict QM if the values of physical magnitudes are vectors in the geometric algebra G\(^{{\mathbf {3}}}\).

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Held, C. Quantum-mechanical correlations and Tsirelson bound from geometric algebra. Quantum Stud.: Math. Found. 8, 411–417 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40509-021-00252-y

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