Entanglement-based signature of nonlocal dispersion cancellation

Abstract

We derive an inequality bounding the strength of temporal correlations for a pair of light beams prepared in a separable state and propagating through dispersive media with opposite signs of group-velocity dispersion. The presented inequality can be violated by entangled states of light, such as photon pairs produced in spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Because the class of separable states covers the entire category of classical fields as a particular case, this result provides an unambiguously quantum feature of nonlocal dispersion cancellation that cannot be reproduced within the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation.