Entanglement without Quantum Mechanics: Operational Constraints on the Quantum Signature
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2512.14834 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 16 Dec 2025] Title:Entanglement without Quantum Mechanics: Operational Constraints on the Quantum Signature Authors:Samuel Schlegel, Borivoje Dakić, Flavio Del Santo View a PDF of the paper titled Entanglement without Quantum Mechanics: Operational Constraints on the Quantum Signature, by Samuel Schlegel and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Entanglement is often regarded as an inherently quantum feature. We show that this does not have to be the case: under restricted operational access, classical correlations can appear nonseparable when expressed in the formalism of quantum mechanics. If an observer is limited to a constrained set of measurements and transformations, certain classical phase-space distributions can mimic entanglement-like behaviours. Imposing positivity of the associated Hilbert space operator as a physicality requirement removes some of these representational artifacts, revealing a regime in which nonseparability is genuine but still reproducible by classical models. Only when the operational restrictions on the observer are lifted further--allowing operational tests of measurement incompatibility or other nonclassical signatures--does one obtain entanglement that can no longer be captured by any classical description. This operational hierarchy distinguishes classical artifacts, classically reproducible nonseparability, and genuine entanglement. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2512.14834 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2512.14834v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.14834 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Samuel Schlegel [view email] [v1] Tue, 16 Dec 2025 19:00:06 UTC (444 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Entanglement without Quantum Mechanics: Operational Constraints on the Quantum Signature, by Samuel Schlegel and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2025-12 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)