Stronger-than-binary correlations experimentally demonstrated for the first time

For the first time, physicists have experimentally demonstrated ternary—rather than binary—quantum correlations between entangled objects. The results show that the quantum measurement process cannot be described as a binary process (having two possible outcomes), but rather stronger-than-binary ternary measurements (which have three possible outcomes) should be considered in order to fully understand how the quantum measurement process works.

The physicists, Xiao-Min Hu and coauthors from China, Germany, Spain, and Hungary, have published a paper on the stronger-than-binary correlations in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

"We discovered and experimentally verified the existence of genuine ternary measurements," coauthor Matthias Kleinmann at the University of Siegen in Siegen, Germany, and the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, told Phys.org. "The experimental conclusions are independent of any underlying theory (here: quantum theory) and establish that ternary measurements are a generic feature of nature."