Efficient discrimination between real and complex quantum theories

Quantum 9, 1595 (2025).

https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-01-15-1595

We improve the test to show the impossibility of a quantum theory based on real numbers by a larger ratio of complex-to-real bound on a Bell-type parameter. In contrast to previous theoretical and experimental proposals the test requires three settings for the parties $A$ and $C$, but also six settings for the middle party $B$, assuming separability of the sources. The bound we found for this symmetric configuration imposed on a real theory is $14.69$ while the complex maximum is $18$. This large theoretical difference enables us to demonstrate the concomitant experimental violation on IBM quantum computer via a designed quantum network, without resorting to error mitigation, obtaining as a result $15.44$ at more than $100$ standard deviations above the found real bound.