Quantum violations of bipartite Bell facets

Unsolved ID op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5 Last edited 4 September 2026
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Problem

Must every nontrivial facet Bell inequality in a finite bipartite scenario have a quantum violation? Let \(\mathcal L\) be the local polytope, and let \(\mathcal Q\) consist of behaviors realizable as

\begin{equation} p(a,b\mid x,y) =\operatorname{Tr}\!\left[\rho_{AB} \bigl(M_x^a\otimes N_y^b\bigr)\right], \tag{1} \end{equation}

where \(\rho_{AB}\) is a finite-dimensional state and \(\{M_x^a\}_a\) and \(\{N_y^b\}_b\) are local POVMs. Equation (1) defines the quantum set used below.

For a linear functional \(F(p)=\sum_{a,b,x,y}c_{abxy}p(a,b\mid x,y)\), suppose \(F(p)\leq\beta_{\mathrm L}\) supports a facet of \(\mathcal L\) and is not a positivity facet within the normalization and no-signalling affine hull. Is it necessarily true that

\begin{equation} \sup_{p\in\mathcal Q}F(p)>\beta_{\mathrm L}? \tag{2} \end{equation}

Equation (2) asks whether the bipartite local and quantum sets can share a nontrivial facet-supporting hyperplane.

Source

Ramanathan explicitly asks whether every nontrivial bipartite facet Bell inequality, rather than only every such almost-quantum facet, admits a quantum violation [Ram21].

Progress

  • Escolà-Farràs, Calsamiglia, and Winter proved Eq. (2) for every tight bipartite correlation inequality, including every facet inequality of a two-player XOR game. Their theorem does not cover general Bell behaviors with arbitrary outcome probabilities [ECW20].

  • Ramanathan proved that every nontrivial bipartite facet is violated by the almost-quantum set and that the quantum statement holds for the correlation-polytope projection. Because the almost-quantum set strictly contains the quantum set, this does not establish Eq. (2) in general [Ram21].

Comment

The missing step is to replace the almost-quantum violation by a quantum behavior for every nontrivial bipartite facet. A solution may instead exhibit a facet for which \(\sup_{p\in\mathcal Q}F(p)=\beta_{\mathrm L}\), rather than the strict inequality in Eq. (2).

References

[ECW20]
L. Escolà-Farràs, J. Calsamiglia, and A. Winter, “All Tight Correlation Bell Inequalities Have Quantum Violations,” Physical Review Research 2, 012044(R) (2020).DOIarXiv
[Ram21]
R. Ramanathan, “Violation of All Two-Party Facet Bell Inequalities by Almost-Quantum Correlations,” Physical Review Research 3, 033100 (2021).DOIarXiv

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“Quantum violations of bipartite Bell facets,” Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo), ID op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5, accessed 2026-09-08.

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@incollection{qiqcop_op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5,
  title = {Quantum violations of bipartite Bell facets},
  booktitle = {Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo)},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://qiqc-op.com/problem/op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5/}},
  note = {Stable ID op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5; status: Unsolved; accessed 2026-09-08}
}

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“Quantum violations of bipartite Bell facets,” Quantum Information and Quantum Computation Open Problem Zoo (QIQCOP Zoo), https://qiqc-op.com/problem/op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5/, ID op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5, accessed 2026-09-08.

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op_dcea1e5e3032b8c5
01M1HME780803VM2A45MA86N41