Bell inequality for pairs of particle-number-superselection-rule restricted states

Abstract

Proposals for Bell-inequality tests on systems restricted by the particle-number-superselection rule often require operations that are difficult to implement in practice. In this article, we derive a Bell inequality, where measurements on pairs of states are used as a method to bypass this superselection rule. In particular, we focus on mode entanglement of an arbitrary number of massive particles and show that our Bell inequality detects the entanglement in an identical pair of states when other inequalities fail. However, as the number of particles in the system increases, the violation of our Bell inequality decreases due to the restriction in the measurement space caused by the superselection rule. This Bell test can be implemented using techniques that are routinely used in current experiments. © 2010 The American Physical Society.