From:
jphysb@iop.org [mailto:jphysb@iop.org]
Sent: 30
December 2005 10:06
To:
ch.thompson1@virgin.net
Subject:
Final decision on your article from J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. -
B/213475/PAP/142277
Ref:
B/213475/PAP/142277
Dear Dr
Thompson
TITLE: Homodyne detection and optical parametric
amplification: a classical approach applied to proposed ``loophole-free'' Bell
tests
AUTHORS: Dr Caroline H Thompson
Your paper
submitted to Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics has
now been refereed and the referee reports are attached.
I am sorry
to tell you that the referees have recommended that your paper should not be
published in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular &
Optical
Physics, for the reasons given in their reports. Your paper has therefore been
withdrawn from consideration.
I would like
to thank you for your interest in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular &
Optical Physics.
Yours
sincerely
Joanna
Dingley
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Administrator
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Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics
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Article
under review for Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics
Homodyne
detection and optical parametric amplification: a classical approach applied to
proposed ``loophole-free'' Bell tests - Dr Caroline H Thompson
ID:
B/213475/PAP
FIRST
REFEREE'S REPORT
============================
The author
addresses the possibility of a classical interpretation of theoretical proposals
and experimental realizations aimed at testing the Bell's inequalities.
The author
also discusses the validity of the "quantumness" of models and states
exploited to perform such tests.
In
particular, the author refers to the "loophole-free" Bell test
proposed by Garcia-Patron et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 130409 (2004)).
She proposes
a classical model providing a fully classical description of the results of the
proposed Bell test.
The proposal
is based on classical models of homodyne detection and optical parametric
amplification.
Moreover,
the author also discusses the effective nonclassicality of some states of the
radiation field exhibiting some peculiar features.
For
instance, She refers to the experimental reconstruction of the single-photon
Fock state realized by Lvovsky et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 050402 (2001)); and
to the photon-subtracted non-Gaussian state experimentally realized by Wenger
et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 153601 (2004)).
The paper
should be completely revised in its contents, for the following reasons:
1) the
discussion is completely qualitative, and the analysis has been not carried out
in any detail beyond the initially suggested direction;
2) the paper
does not contain significant new results of any kind, and neither strongly
supports classical models nor clearly confutes quantum models.
Besides the
aims and targets of a research activity, a scientific work should be supported
by a robust background theory, the analysis should be mathematical and consequential,
qualitative and quantitative results should be provided and applied to concrete
experimental schemes.
Unfortunately,
the submitted paper does not seem to meet any of these fundamental
requirements.
In
conclusion, I believe that the paper is not suitable for publication in its
present form and in any revised form unless radical changes are implemented.
Article
under review for Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics
Homodyne
detection and optical parametric amplification: a classical approach applied to
proposed ``loophole-free'' Bell tests - Dr Caroline H Thompson
ID:
B/213475/PAP
SECOND
REFEREE'S REPORT
============================
The author
analyses the recent proposal for a loophole-free homodyne test of Bell's inequalities
from the perspective of local hidden variable theories.
My main
problem with this work is that it is composed mainly of highly speculative
remarks which do not lead to a consistent theory that could be compared against
experimental results. The starting point is the classical theory of homodyne
detection neglecting shot-noise fluctuations, which yields a simple binary
outcome as a function of the local oscillator case. It is not clear however how
this model could be brought to agreement with standard single-mode experiments,
even before the two-mode case of spatially separated detectors is considered.
The author
then proceeds to the homodyne test of Bell's inequalities to conclude, if my
understanding is correct, that the model brings different predictions than
quantum mechanical calculations. However, in order to make this result sound in
any way, it should be shown first that the presented model is capable of
explaining quantitatively some other experiments. Otherwise the model seems to
be driven more by the ideology of local realism rather than the physical
reality.
I am afraid
that the author makes misleading remarks about Gaussian light as taking
"the form of pulses of light that have a Gaussian intensity profile and
also, as a result of Fourier theory, a Gaussian spectrum." What is usually
meant by Gaussian states of optical
radiation is the Gaussian statistics of quadrature observables, measured by
means of homodyne detection. Such a Gaussian statistics, observed in a
multitude of optical experiments, shoud be reproducible in any local hidden
variable theory that aims to describe experiments performed so far.
In
conclusion, the ideas presented in the manuscript seem to me to have too few
"contact points" with physical reality that is observed routinely in
optical laboratories to warrant publication in J. Phys. B. Perhaps the author
may wish to extent these thoughts into a more complete theory that could be
quantitatively compared with experimental results. However, the author should be
warned that this is an extremely challenging and ambitious task, as there are
decades of ultraprecise experimental tests standing behind the standard quantum
theory.
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