The right entanglement for perfect nonlocality and zero-error communication

Abstract:We identify a structural mechanism by which perfect play in a nonlocal game requires and self-tests a specific non-maximally entangled state. To this end, we construct a Flagged Magic-Square game by extending the standard Magic-Square game with an additional ``flag'' outcome and two additional questions for each player. The game admits a perfect strategy using a state with Schmidt coefficients proportional to $(1,\sqrt{2},\sqrt{2},\sqrt{2},\sqrt{2})$. We give a direct algebraic proof that maximally entangled strategies have winning probability bounded away from one, independently of dimension. Moreover, the game self-tests this state, providing an example of a two-party pseudo-telepathy game that certifies a specific non-maximally entangled state. Our construction illustrates how adding suitable constraints to a rigid measurement geometry can enforce specific Schmidt ratios and provides a modular route to further self-tests based on other rigid pseudo-telepathy games. We establish a general game-to-channel reduction that transfers separations in the game model to one-shot zero-error communication over classical channels. Applied to the Flagged Magic-Square game, it yields a classical channel for which entanglement permits the zero-error transmission of ten messages in a single use, whereas any finite-dimensional maximally entangled resource permits at most nine. Thus, maximally entangled states are not a universally optimal entanglement resource for zero-error communication over classical noisy channels.

arXiv:2610.06512 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.06512v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.06512 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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