Nearly maximal violation of the Mermin-Klyshko inequality with multimode entangled coherent states

Abstract: Entangled coherent states for multiple bosonic modes, also referred to as multimode cat states, not only are of fundamental interest, but also have practical applications. The nonclassical correlation among these modes is well characterized by the violation of the Mermin-Klyshko inequality. We here study Mermin-Klyshko inequality violations for such multi-mode entangled states with rotated quantum-number parity operators. Our results show that the Mermin-Klyshko signal obtained with these operators can approach the maximal value even when the average quantum number in each mode is only 1, and the inequality violation exponentially increases with the number of entangled modes. The correlations among the rotated parities of the entangled bosonic modes are in distinct contrast with those among the displaced parities, with which a nearly maximal Mermin-Klyshko inequality violation requires the size of the cat state to be increased by about 15 times.