Multipartite Bell-Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger nonclassicality from interwoven frustrated down-conversion
Phys. Rev. A 114, 042222 – Published 28 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qbjp-qjhl
Abstract
We present a theory of an interference process that starts with coherently pumped two-mode parametric down-conversion (PDC) sources, whose output modes are directed to observers such that each observer receives modes from two different source crystals. Each observation station is equipped with a locally controlled PDC crystal, coherently pumped with the source crystals, whose output modes are perfectly aligned with the input modes from the source PDCs. By varying the local phases of the input modes, perfect -photon interference is observed in single-photon registrations, one in each output mode of the local PDCs. The interference results from the indistinguishability of the origins of the detected photons: either they all originate from the source PDCs or from the local PDCs. Bell-Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger nonclassicality of the process emerges when one considers situations in which at least one of the local PDC processes is blocked and the -photon interference disappears. A “lifted” Clauser-Horne inequality is violated when its sole negative correlation term is tuned to maximal destructive interference, while all other terms involve settings in which one of the local pumps is off.