Delayed-choice causal order and nonclassical correlations

Recent frameworks describing quantum mechanics in the absence of a global causal order admit the existence of causally indefinite processes, where it is impossible to ascribe causal order for events A and B. These frameworks even allow for processes that violate so-called causal inequalities, which are analogous to Bell's inequalities. However, the physicality of these exotic processes is, in the general case, still under debate, bringing into question their foundational relevance. While it is known that causally indefinite processes can be probabilistically realized by means of a quantum circuit, along with an additional conditioning event C, concrete insights into the ontological meaning of such implementation schemes have heretofore been limited. Here, we show that causally indefinite processes can be realized with schemes where C serves only as a classical flag heralding which causally indefinite process was realized. We then show that there are processes where any pure conditioning measurement of C leads to a causally indefinite process for A and B, thus establishing causal indefiniteness as a basis-independent quantity. Finally, we demonstrate that quantum mechanics allows for phenomena where C can deterministically decide whether A comes before B or vice versa, without signaling to either. This is akin to Wheeler's famous delayed-choice experiment establishing definite causal order in quantum mechanics as an instrument-dependent property.Received 25 September 2020Revised 1 February 2021Accepted 11 March 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023028Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum channelsQuantum correlations in quantum informationQuantum Information