Experimental Test of Quantum Nonlocality from Contextuality

Abstract: There are two powerful arguments against the possibility of extending quantum mechanics, the violation of Bell inequalities and the Kochen-Specker theorem, but the connection between the two remains confused. Following the distinctive strategy proposed by Cabello [Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 070401 (2021)], Bell inequalities can be violated by state-independent contextuality sets. However, the experimental realization of such ideas is challenging as it requires high-dimensional entanglement. Orbital angular momentum provides an unlimited state space and the number of effective dimensions can be readily tailored as required. We performed an experimental test of non-locality based on Bell inequalities from contextuality, using orbital angular momentum entanglement in a bipartite photonic system. Our experiment not only shows a new way to produce non-locality but also connects contextuality and non-locality, two fundamental quantum resources that are critical for quantum computation and secure communication tasks.