Bell Nonlocality in Classical Systems Coexisting with Other System Types

Abstract

The realistic interpretation of classical theory assumes that every classical system has well-defined properties, which may be unknown to the observer but are nevertheless part of reality and can, in principle, be revealed by measurements. Here we show that this interpretation can, in principle, be falsified if classical systems coexist with other types of physical systems. To make this point, we construct a toy theory that (i) includes classical theory as a subtheory and (ii) allows classical systems to be entangled with another type of system, called anticlassical. We show that our toy theory allows for the violation of Bell inequalities in two-party scenarios where one of the settings corresponds to a local measurement performed on a classical system alone. Building on this fact, we show that measurement outcomes in classical theory cannot, in general, be regarded as predetermined by the state of an underlying reality. Published by the American Physical Society 2024