Quantum Collapse Bell Inequalities

Karl-Peter Marzlin, T. A. Osborn

Published 2013-06-11, updated 2014-03-03Version 2

We propose Bell inequalities for discrete or continuous quantum systems which test the compatibility of quantum physics with an interpretation in terms of deterministic hidden-variable theories. The wave function collapse that occurs in a sequence of quantum measurements enters the upper bound via the concept of quantum conditional probabilities. The resulting hidden-variable inequality is applicable to an arbitrary observable that is decomposable into a weighted sum of non-commuting projectors. We present local and non-local examples of violation of generalized Bell inequalities in phase space, which sense the negativity of the Wigner function.