Abstract
One of Yakir Aharonov’s endlessly captivating physics ideas is the conjecture that two axioms, namely relativistic causality (“no superluminal signalling”) and nonlocality, so nearly contradict each other that a unique theory—quantum mechanics—reconciles them. But superquantum (or “PR-box”) correlations imply that quantum mechanics is not the most nonlocal theory (in the sense of nonlocal correlations) consistent with relativistic causality. Let us consider supplementing these two axioms with a minimal third axiom: there exists a classical limit in which macroscopic observables commute. That is, just as quantum mechanics has a classical limit, so must any generalization of quantum mechanics. In this classical limit, PR-box correlations violate relativistic causality. Generalized to all stronger-than-quantum bipartite correlations, this result is a derivation of Tsirelson’s bound without assuming quantum mechanics. [Editors note: for a video of the talk given by Dr. Rohrlich at the Aharonov-80 conference in 2012 at Chapman University, see quantum.chapman.edu/talk-10.]
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Acknowledgements
For over two decades I have had the great good fortune to work with Professor Yakir Aharonov, learning from his penetrating questions, his mastery of quantum and statistical fluctuations, his subtle formulations such as weak measurement and weak values, and his countless other insights.
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Rohrlich, D. (2014). PR-Box Correlations Have No Classical Limit. In: Struppa, D., Tollaksen, J. (eds) Quantum Theory: A Two-Time Success Story. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5217-8_13
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