A central result in the foundations of quantum mechanics is the Kochen-Specker theorem. In short, it states that quantum mechanics is in conflict with classical models in which the result of a measurement does not depend on which other compatible measurements are jointly performed. Here compatible measurements are those that can be implemented simultaneously or, more generally, those that are jointly measurable. This conflict is generically called quantum contextuality. In this review, an introduction to this subject and its current status is presented. Several proofs of the Kochen-Specker theorem and different notions of contextuality are reviewed. How to experimentally test some of these notions is explained, and connections between contextuality and nonlocality or graph theory are discussed. Finally, some applications of contextuality in quantum information processing are reviewed.

Query complexity is a common tool for comparing quantum and classical computation, and it has produced many examples of how quantum algorithms differ from classical ones. Here we investigate in detail the role that oracles play for the advantage of quantum algorithms. We do so by using a simulation framework, Quantum Simulation Logic (QSL), to construct oracles and algorithms that solve some problems with the same success probability and number of queries as the quantum algorithms. The framework can be simulated using only classical resources at a constant overhead as compared to the quantum resources used in quantum computation. Our results clarify the assumptions made and the conditions needed when using quantum oracles. Using the same assumptions on oracles within the simulation framework we show that for some specific algorithms, such as the Deutsch-Jozsa and Simons algorithms, there simply is no advantage in terms of query complexity. This does not detract from the fact that quantum query complexity provides examples of how a quantum computer can be expected to behave, which in turn has proved useful for finding new quantum algorithms outside of the oracle paradigm, where the most prominent example is Shors algorithm for integer factorization.

Entanglement is an invaluable resource for fundamental tests of physics and the implementation of quantum information protocols such as device-independent secure communications. In particular, time-bin entanglement is widely exploited to reach these purposes both in free space and optical fiber propagation, due to the robustness and simplicity of its implementation. However, all existing realizations of time-bin entanglement suffer from an intrinsic postselection loophole, which undermines their usefulness. Here, we report the first experimental violation of Bells inequality with "genuine" time-bin entanglement, free of the postselection loophole. We introduced a novel function of the interferometers at the two measurement stations, that operate as fast synchronized optical switches. This scheme allowed us to obtain a postselection-loophole-free Bell violation of more than 9 standard deviations. Since our scheme is fully implementable using standard fiber-based components and is compatible with modem integrated photonics, our results pave the way for the distribution of genuine time-bin entanglement over long distances.

Along-standing aim of quantum information research is to understand what gives quantum computers their advantage. This requires separating problems that need genuinely quantum resources from those for which classical resources are enough. Two examples of quantum speed-up are the Deutsch-Jozsa and Simons problem, both efficiently solvable on a quantum Turing machine, and both believed to lack efficient classical solutions. Here we present a framework that can simulate both quantum algorithms efficiently, solving the Deutsch-Jozsa problem with probability 1 using only one oracle query, and Simons problem using linearly many oracle queries, just as expected of an ideal quantum computer. The presented simulation framework is in turn efficiently simulatable in a classical probabilistic Turing machine. This shows that the Deutsch-Jozsa and Simons problem do not require any genuinely quantum resources, and that the quantum algorithms show no speed-up when compared with their corresponding classical simulation. Finally, this gives insight into what properties are needed in the two algorithms and calls for further study of oracle separation between quantum and classical computation.

The violation of Bells inequality requires a well-designed experiment to validate the result. In experiments using energy-time and time-bin entanglement, initially proposed by Franson in 1989, there is an intrinsic loophole due to the high postselection. To obtain a violation in this type of experiment, a chained Bell inequality must be used. However, the local realism bound requires a high visibility in excess of 94.63% in the time-bin entangled state. In this work, we show how such a high visibility can be reached in order to violate a chained Bell inequality with six, eight, and ten terms.

Experimental violations of Bell inequalities are in general vulnerable to so-called loopholes. In this work, we analyze the characteristics of a loophole-free Bell test with photons, closing simultaneously the locality, freedom-of-choice, fair-sampling (i.e., detection), coincidence-time, and memory loopholes. We pay special attention to the effect of excess predictability in the setting choices due to nonideal random-number generators. We discuss necessary adaptations of the Clauser-Horne and Eberhard inequality when using such imperfect devices and-using Hoeffdings inequality and Doobs optional stopping theorem-the statistical analysis in such Bell tests.

We demonstrate how adversaries with unbounded computing resources can break Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocols which employ a particular message authentication code suggested previously. This authentication code, featuring low key consumption, is not Information-Theoretically Secure (ITS) since for each message the eavesdropper has intercepted she is able to send a different message from a set of messages that she can calculate by finding collisions of a cryptographic hash function. However, when this authentication code was introduced it was shown to prevent straightforward Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks against QKD protocols.

In this paper, we prove that the set of messages that collide with any given message under this authentication code contains with high probability a message that has small Hamming distance to any other given message. Based on this fact we present extended MITM attacks against different versions of BB84 QKD protocols using the addressed authentication code; for three protocols we describe every single action taken by the adversary. For all protocols the adversary can obtain complete knowledge of the key, and for most protocols her success probability in doing so approaches unity.

Since the attacks work against all authentication methods which allow to calculate colliding messages, the underlying building blocks of the presented attacks expose the potential pitfalls arising as a consequence of non-ITS authentication in QKDpostprocessing. We propose countermeasures, increasing the eavesdroppers demand for computational power, and also prove necessary and sufficient conditions for upgrading the discussed authentication code to the ITS level.

The notion of (non) contextuality pertains to sets of properties measured one subset (context) at a time. We extend this notion to include so-called inconsistently connected systems, in which the measurements of a given property in different contexts may have different distributions, due to contextual biases in experimental design or physical interactions (signaling): a system of measurements has a maximally noncontextual description if they can be imposed a joint distribution on in which the measurements of any one property in different contexts are equal to each other with the maximal probability allowed by their different distributions. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such a description in a broad class of systems including Klyachko-Can-Binicioglu-Shumvosky-type (KCBS), EPR-Bell-type, and Leggett-Garg-type systems. Because these conditions allow for inconsistent connectedness, they are applicable to real experiments. We illustrate this by analyzing an experiment by Lapkiewicz and colleagues aimed at testing contextuality in a KCBS-type system.

We present a formal theory of contextuality for a set of random variables grouped into different subsets (contexts) corresponding to different, mutually incompatible conditions. Within each context the random variables are jointly distributed, but across different contexts they are stochastically unrelated. The theory of contextuality is based on the analysis of the extent to which some of these random variables can be viewed as preserving their identity across different contexts when one considers all possible joint distributions imposed on the entire set of the random variables. We illustrate the theory on three systems of traditional interest in quantum physics (and also in non-physical, e.g., behavioral studies). These are systems of the Klyachko-Can-Binicioglu-Shumovsky-type, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bell-type, and Suppes-Zanotti-Leggett-Garg-type. Listed in this order, each of them is formally a special case of the previous one. For each of them we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for contextuality while allowing for experimental errors and contextual biases or signaling. Based on the same principles that underly these derivations we also propose a measure for the degree of contextuality and compute it for the three systems in question.

The Franson interferometer, proposed in 1989 (Franson 1989 Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 2205-08), beautifully shows the counter-intuitive nature of light. The quantum description predicts sinusoidal interference for specific outcomes of the experiment, and these predictions can be verified in experiment. In the spirit of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen it is possible to ask if the quantum-mechanical description (of this setup) can be considered complete. This question will be answered in detail in this paper, by delineating the quite complicated relation between energy-time entanglement experiments and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) elements of reality. The mentioned sinusoidal interference pattern is the same as that giving a violation in the usual Bell experiment. Even so, depending on the precise requirements made on the local realist model, this can imply (a) no violation, (b) smaller violation than usual, or (c) full violation of the appropriate statistical bound. Alternatives include (a) using only the measurement outcomes as EPR elements of reality, (b) using the emission time as EPR element of reality, (c) using path realism, or (d) using a modified setup. This paper discusses the nature of these alternatives and how to choose between them. The subtleties of this discussion needs to be taken into account when designing and setting up experiments intended to test local realism. Furthermore, these considerations are also important for quantum communication, for example in Bell-inequality-based quantum cryptography, especially when aiming for device independence.

In a local realist model, physical properties are defined prior to and independent of measurement and no physical influence can propagate faster than the speed of light. Proper experimental violation of a Bell inequality would show that the world cannot be described with such a model. Experiments intended to demonstrate a violation usually require additional assumptions that make them vulnerable to a number of "loopholes." In both pulsed and continuously pumped photonic experiments, an experimenter needs to identify which detected photons belong to the same pair, giving rise to the coincidence-time loophole. Here, via two different methods, we derive Clauser-Horne- and Eberhard-type inequalities that are not only free of the fair-sampling assumption (thus not being vulnerable to the detection loophole), but also free of the fair-coincidence assumption (thus not being vulnerable to the coincidence-time loophole). Both approaches can be used for pulsed as well as for continuously pumped experiments. Moreover, as they can also be applied to already existing experimental data, we finally show that a recent experiment [Giustina et al., Nature (London) 497, 227 (2013)] violated local realism without requiring the fair-coincidence assumption.

It is known that if the dimension is a perfect square the Clifford group can be represented by monomial matrices. Another way of expressing this result is to say that when the dimension is a perfect square the standard representation of the Clifford group has a system of imprimitivity consisting of one dimensional subspaces. We generalize this result to the case of an arbitrary dimension. Let k be the square-free part of the dimension. Then we show that the standard representation of the Clifford group has a system of imprimitivity consisting of k-dimensional subspaces. To illustrate the use of this result we apply it to the calculation of SIC-POVMs (symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measures), constructing exact solutions in dimensions 8 (hand-calculation) as well as 12 and 28 (machine-calculation).

Information-theoretically secure (ITS) authentication is needed in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). In this paper, we study security of an ITS authentication scheme proposed by Wegman& Carter, in the case of partially known authentication key. This scheme uses a new authentication key in each authentication attempt, to select a hash function from an Almost Strongly Universal₂ hash function family. The partial knowledge of the attacker is measured as the trace distance between the authentication key distribution and the uniform distribution; this is the usual measure in QKD. We provide direct proofs of security of the scheme, when using partially known key, first in the information-theoretic setting and then in terms of witness indistinguishability as used in the Universal Composability (UC) framework. We find that if the authentication procedure has a failure probability ε and the authentication key has an ε´ trace distance to the uniform, then under ITS, the adversary’s success probability conditioned on an authentic message-tag pair is only bounded by ε +|Ƭ|ε´, where |Ƭ| is the size of the set of tags. Furthermore, the trace distance between the authentication key distribution and the uniform increases to |Ƭ|ε´ after having seen an authentic message-tag pair. Despite this, we are able to prove directly that the authenticated channel is indistinguishable from an (ideal) authentic channel (the desired functionality), except with probability less than ε + ε´. This proves that the scheme is (ε + ε´)-UC-secure, without using the composability theorem.

In this Comment we argue that the experiment describedin the recent Letter does not allow one to make con-clusions about contextuality. Our main criticism is that themeasurement of the observables as well as the preparationof the state manifestly depend on the chosen context.Contrary to that, contextuality is about the behavior ofthesamemeasurement device in different experimentalcontexts.

Quantum systems show contextuality. More precisely, it is impossible to reproduce the quantum-mechanical predictions using a non-contextual realist model, i.e., a model where the outcome of one measurement is independent of the choice of compatible measurements performed in the measurement context. There has been several attempts to quantify the amount of contextuality for specific quantum systems, for example, in the number of rays needed in a KS proof, or the number of terms in certain inequalities, or in the violation, noise sensitivity, and other measures. This paper is about another approach: to use a simple contextual model that reproduces the quantum-mechanical contextual behaviour, but not necessarily all quantum predictions. The amount of contextuality can then be quantified in terms of additional resources needed as compared with a similar model without contextuality. In this case the contextual model needs to keep track of the context used, so the appropriate measure would be memory. Another way to view this is as a memory requirement to be able to reproduce quantum contextuality in a realist model. The model we will use can be viewed as an extension of Spekkens toy model [Phys. Rev. A 75, 032110 (2007)], and the relation is studied in some detail. To reproduce the quantum predictions for the Peres-Mermin square, the memory requirement is more than one bit in addition to the memory used for the individual outcomes in the corresponding noncontextual model.

We show that the Clifford group-the normaliser of the Weyl-Heisenberg group-can be represented by monomial phase-permutation matrices if and only if the dimension is a square number. This simplifies expressions for SIC vectors, and has other applications to SICs and to Mutually Unbiased Bases. Exact solutions for SICs in dimension 16 are presented for the first time.

The Hardy test of nonlocality can be seen as a particular case of the Bell tests based on the Clauser-Horne (CH) inequality. Here we stress this connection when we analyze the relation between the CH-inequality violation, its threshold detection efficiency, and the measurement settings adopted in the test. It is well known that the threshold efficiencies decrease when one considers partially entangled states and that the use of these states, unfortunately, generates a reduction in the CH violation. Nevertheless, these quantities are both dependent on the measurement settings considered, and in this paper we show that there are measurement bases which allow for an optimal situation in this trade-off relation. These bases are given as a generalization of the Hardy measurement bases, and they will be relevant for future Bell tests relying on pairs of entangled qubits.

Klyachko and coworkers consider an orthogonality graph in the form of a pentagram, and in this way derive a Kochen-Specker inequality for spin 1 systems. In some low-dimensional situations Hilbert spaces are naturally organised, by a magical choice of basis, into SO(N) orbits. Combining these ideas some very elegant results emerge. We give a careful discussion of the pentagram operator, and then show how the pentagram underlies a number of other quantum "paradoxes", such as that of Hardy.

The Kochen-Specker theorem states that noncontextual hidden variable models are inconsistent with the quantum predictions for every yes-no question on a qutrit, corresponding to every projector in three dimensions. It has been suggested [D.A. Meyer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 (1999) 3751] that the inconsistency would disappear when restricting to projectors on unit vectors with rational components; that noncontextual hidden variables could reproduce the quantum predictions for rational vectors. Here we show that a qutrit state with rational components violates an inequality valid for noncontextual hidden-variable models [A.A. Klyachko et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 020403] using rational projectors. This shows that the inconsistency remains even when using only rational vectors.

A basic assumption behind the inequalities used for testing noncontextual hidden variable models is that the observables measured on the same individual system are perfectly compatible. However, compatibility is not perfect in actual experiments using sequential measurements. We discuss the resulting "compatibility loophole" and present several methods to rule out certain hidden variable models that obey a kind of extended noncontextuality. Finally, we present a detailed analysis of experimental imperfections in a recent trapped-ion experiment and apply our analysis to that case.

The chained Bell inequalities of Braunstein and Caves involving N settings per observer have some interesting applications. Here we obtain the minimum detection efficiency required for a loophole-free violation of the Braunstein-Caves inequalities for any N greater than= 2. We discuss both the case in which both particles are detected with the same efficiency and the case in which the particles are detected with different efficiencies.

De Raedt et al. [Eur. Phys. J. B 53, 139 (2006)] have claimed to provide a local realist model for correlations of the singlet state in the familiar Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm (EPRB) experiment when time-coincidence is used to decide which detection events should count in the analysis, and furthermore that this suggests that it is possible to construct local realistic models that can reproduce the quantum mechanical expectation values. In this letter we show that these conclusions cannot be upheld since their model exploits the so-called coincidence-time loophole. When this is properly taken into account no startling conclusions can be drawn about local realist modelling of quantum mechanics.

The bits of the binary expansion of position measurement results were used to derive Bell inequalities for position measurements. The output state of the nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) was used to obtain violations of these inequalities. It was shown that the position operator itself, together with other suitable operators, also can be used to violate the Bell inequality, deriving a Bell inequality more suited to the original Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) setting. It was concluded that the NOPA state cannot be described by a local realist model, despite having a strictly positive Wigner function.

This paper analyzes effects of time dependence in the Bell inequality. A generalized inequality is derived for the case when coincidence and non-coincidence (and hence whether or not a pair contributes to the actual data) is controlled by timing that depends on the detector settings. Needless to say, this inequality is violated by quantum mechanics and could be violated by experimental data provided that the loss of measurement pairs through failure of coincidence is small enough, but the quantitative bound is more restrictive in this case than in the previously analyzed "efficiency loophole".

Bell inequalities for number measurements are derived via the observation that the bits of the number indexing a number state are proper qubits. Violations of these inequalities are obtained from the output state of the nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier.

Quantum Cryptography, or more accurately, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is based on using an unconditionally secure "quantum channel" to share a secret key among two users. A manufacturer of QKD devices could, intentionally or not, use a (semi-) classical channel instead of the quantum channel, which would remove the supposedly unconditional security. One example is the BB84 protocol, where the quantum channel can be implemented in polarization of single photons. Here, use of several photons instead of one to encode each bit of the key provides a similar but insecure system. For protocols based on violation of a Bell inequality (e.g., the Ekert protocol) the situation is somewhat different. While the possibility is mentioned by some authors, it is generally thought that an implementation of a (semi-) classical channel will differ significantly from that of a quantum channel. Here, a counterexample will be given using an identical physical setup as is used in photon-polarization Ekert QKD. Since the physical implementation is identical, a manufacturer may include this modification as a Trojan Horse in manufactured systems, to be activated at will by an eavesdropper. Thus, the old truth of cryptography still holds: you have to trust the manufacturer of your cryptographic device. Even when you do violate the Bell inequality.

An analysis of detector-efficiency in many-site Clauser-Horne inequalities is presented for the case of perfect visibility. It is shown that there is a violation of the presented n-site Clauser-Horne inequalities if and only if the efficiency is greater than n/(2n−1). Thus, for a two-site two-setting experiment there are no quantum-mechanical predictions that violate local realism unless the efficiency is greater than . Second, there are n-site experiments for which the quantum-mechanical predictions violate local realism whenever the efficiency exceeds .

A local-variable model yielding the statistics from the singlet state is presented for the case of inefficient detectors and/or lowered visibility. It has independent errors and the highest efficiency at perfect visibility is 77.80%, while the highest visibility at perfect detector-efficiency is 63.66%. The model cannot be refuted by measurements made to date.

The two-photon interferometric experiment proposed by J. D. Franson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2205 (1989)] is often treated as a “Bell test of local realism.” However, it has been suggested that this is incorrect due to the 50% postselection performed even in the ideal gedanken version of the experiment. Here we present a simple local hidden variable model of the experiment that successfully explains the results obtained in usual realizations of the experiment, even with perfect detectors. Furthermore, we also show that there is no such model if the switching of the local phase settings is done at a rate determined by the internal geometry of the interferometers.

In this paper detector efficiency conditions are derived for the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox. The conditions will be necessary and sufficient, i.e., the GHZ paradox is explicable in terms of a local-variable model if the efficiency is below the bounds, and the GHZ prerequisites are inconsistent at higher efficiencies. The derivation does not make use of any of the symmetry assumptions usually made in the literature, most notably the assumption of independent errors. The errors in local-hidden-variable models are governed by the “hidden variable” and, therefore, one cannot in general assume that the errors are independent. It will be shown that this assumption is not necessary. Moreover, bounds are presented that do not need the emission rate of particle triples to be known. An example of such a bound is the ratio of the triple coincidence rate and the double coincidence rate at two detectors, which needs to be higher than 75% to yield a contradiction.

We propose a conjugate logic that can capture the behavior of quantum and quantum-like systems. The proposal is similar to the more generic concept of epistemic logic: it encodes knowledge or perhaps more correctly, predictions about outcomes of future observations on some systems. For a quantum system, these predictions are statements about future outcomes of measurements performed on specific degrees of freedom of the system. The proposed logic will include propositions and their relations, including connectives, but importantly also transformations between propositions on conjugate degrees of freedom of the systems. A key point is the addition of a transformation that allows to convert propositions about single systems into propositions about correlations between systems. We will see that subtle choices of the properties of the transformations lead to drastically different underlying mathematical models; one choice gives stabilizer quantum mechanics, while another choice gives Spekkens’ toy theory. This points to a crucial basic property of quantum and quantum-like systems that can be handled within the present conjugate logic by adjusting the mentioned choice. It also enables a discussion on what behaviors are properly quantum or only quantum-like, relating to that choice and how it manifests in the system under scrutiny. 

An experimeotally observed violation of Bell's inequality i.s suppooed to show the failuro of local realism to deal with quantum roality. However, finite statistics and the Lime sequential nature of real experiments still allows a loophole for local roalism. We show that the raodomised design of the Aspect experiment closes this loophole. Our main tool is van de Geer's (1995, 2000) martingale version of the classical Bernstein (1924) incquality guaranteeing, at the  root n scale, a not-beavier-than-Gaussian tail of the distribution of a sum of bouoded supermartingale dilferences. The results are used to specify a protocol for a public bet between the author and L. Accardi, who in recont papers (Aocardi and Regal.i, 2000a, b, 2001; Accardi, lmafuku and Regoli, 2002) has claimed to have produced a suite of computer programmes, to be run on a network of computers, wbich will simulate a violation of Bell's inequalites. At a sarnple size of twenty five thousand, botb error probabilities are guaranteed smaller than about one in a million, provided we adhere to tho sequential randomized design while Accardi aims for tbe greatest possible violation allowed by quantum mechanics.

John Bells theorem of 1964 states that local elements of physical reality, existing independent of measurement, are inconsistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics (Bell, J. S. (1964), Physics (College. Park. Md). 1 (3), 195). Specifically, correlations between measurement results from distant entangled systems would be smaller than predicted by quantum physics. This is expressed in Bells inequalities. Employing modifications of Bells inequalities, many experiments have been performed that convincingly support the quantum predictions. Yet, all experiments rely on assumptions, which provide loopholes for a local realist explanation of the measurement. Here we report an experiment with polarization-entangled photons that simultaneously closes the most significant of these loopholes. We use a highly efficient source of entangled photons, distributed these over a distance of 58.5 meters, and implemented rapid random setting generation and high-efficiency detection to observe a violation of a Bell inequality with high statistical significance. The merely statistical probability of our results to occur under local realism is less than 3.74 . 10(-31), corresponding to an 11.5 standard deviation effect.

The discussion on noncontextual hidden variable models as an underlying description for the quantum-mechanical predictions started in ernest with 1967 paper by Kochen and Specker. There, it was shown that no noncontextual hidden-variable model can give these predictions. The proof used in that paper is complicated, but recently, a paper by Yu and Oh [PRL, 2012] proposes a simpler statistical proof that can also be the basis of an experimental test. Here we report on a sharper version of that statistical proof, and also explain why the algebraic upper bound to the expressions used are not reachable, even with a reasonable contextual hidden variable model. Specifically, we show that the quantum mechanical predictions reach the maximal possible value for a contextual model that keeps the expectation value of the measurement outcomes constant.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD - also referred to as Quantum Cryptography) is a technique for secret key agreement. It has been shown that QKD rigged with Information-Theoretic Secure (ITS) authentication (using secret key) of the classical messages transmitted during the key distribution protocol is also ITS. Note, QKD without any authentication can trivially be broken by man-in-the-middle attacks. Here, we study an authentication method that was originally proposed because of its low key consumption; a two-step authentication that uses a publicly known hash function, followed by a secret strongly universal2 hash function, which is exchanged each round. This two-step authentication is not information-theoretically secure but it was argued that nevertheless it does not compromise the security of QKD. In the current contribution we study intrinsic weaknesses of this approach under the common assumption that the QKD adversary has access to unlimited resources including quantum memories. We consider one implementation of Quantum Cryptographic protocols that use such authentication and demonstrate an attack that fully extract the secret key. Even including the final key from the protocol in the authentication does not rule out the possibility of these attacks. To rectify the situation, we propose a countermeasure that, while not informationtheoretically secure, restores the need for very large computing power for the attack to work. Finally, we specify conditions that must be satisfied by the two-step authentication in order to restore informationtheoretic security.

This paper discusses energy-time entanglement experiments and their relation to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) elements of reality. The interferometric experiment proposed by J. D. Franson in 1989 provides the background, and the main issue here is a detailed discussion on whether a Local Realist model can give the Quantum-Mechanical predictions for this setup. The Franson interferometer gives the same interference pattern as the usual Bell experiment (modulo postselection). Even so, depending on the precise requirements made on the Local Realist model, this can imply a) no violation, b) smaller violation than usual, or c) full violation of the appropriate statistical bound. This paper discusses what requirements are necessary on the model to reach a violation, and the motivation for making these requirements. The alternatives include using a) only the measurement outcomes as EPR elements of reality, b) the emission time as EPR element of reality, and c) path realism. The subtleties of this discussion needs to be taken into account when designing and setting up future experiments of this kind, intended to test Local Realism.

Secure message authentication is an important part of Quantum Key Distribution. In this paper we analyze special properties of a Strongly Universal2 hash function family, an understanding of which is important in the security analysis of the authentication used in Quantum Cryptography. We answer the following question: How much of Alices message does Eve need to influence so that the message along with its tag will give her enough information to create the correct tag for her message?

This is an account of an attempt to improve students- communicative skills, with a focus on mathematics. The intent is to give the students skill and experience in communicating in an environment where precision is important, both in mathematics and science in general, but also in engineering. The first part of the course is intended to improve the students- ability to follow alogical argument, especially long (even infinite) chains of logical arguments. Later parts of the course focus more on the practice of presentation of, discussion of, and writing mathematics. Examination is not by a written exam, the examination consists of students' participation in oralpresentations and the ensuing discussions, a one-pagehandwritten hand-in at the start of the course, and finally a short typed piece on a suitable mathematical topic. Experiences from this first attempt are discussed, and the most striking effect is the visibly improving oral communication skills of the students as the course proceeds. There are also indications that participation in thiscourse is beneficial to later mathematics courses, but only for the able students. We do expect an improved overall performance of the students but there is no clear effect as yet, partly because there has not passed enough (read -any-) time after the finished course, but perhaps also because thesample is small.

A probabilistic version of the Kochen-Specker paradox is presented. The paradox is restated in the form of an inequality relating probabilities from a non-contextual hidden-variable model, by formulating the concept of "probabilistic contextuality." This enables an experimental test for contextuality at low experimental error rates. Using the assumption of independent errors, an explicit error bound of 0.71% is derived, below which a Kochen-Specker contradiction occurs.

In this thesis, the question "What kind of models can be used to describe microcosmos?" will be discussed. Being difficult and very large in scope, the question has here been restricted to whether or not Local Realistic models can be used to describe Quantum-Mechanical processes, one of a collection of questions often referred to as Quantum Paradoxes. Two such paradoxes will be investigated using techniques from probability theory: the Bell inequality and the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox.

A problem with the two mentioned paradoxes is that they are only valid when the detectors are 100% efficient, whereas present experimental efficiency is much lower than that. Here, an approach is presented which enables a generalization of both the Bell inequality and the GHZ paradox to the inefficient case. This is done by introducing the concept of change of ensemble, which provides both qualitative and quantitative information on the nature of the "loophole" in the 100% efficiency prerequisite, and is more fundamental in this regard than the efficiency concept. Efficiency estimates are presented which are easy to obtain from experimental coincidence data, and a connection is established between these estimates and the concept of change of ensemble.

The concept is also studied in the context of Franson interferometry, where the Bell inequality cannot immediately be used. Unexpected subtleties occur when trying to establish whether or not a Local Realistic model of the data is possible even in the ideal case. A Local Realistic model of the experiment is presented, but nevertheless, by introducing an additional requirement on the experimental setup it is possible to refute the mentioned model and show that no other Local Realistic model exists.