title: State-independent experimental test of quantum contextuality with a single trapped ion.
abstract: Using a single trapped ion, we have experimentally demonstrated state-independent violation of a recent version of the Kochen-Specker inequality in a three-level system (qutrit) that is intrinsically indivisible. Three ground states of the (171)Yb(+) ion representing a qutrit are manipulated with high fidelity through microwaves and detected with high efficiency through a two-step quantum jump technique. Qutrits constitute the most fundamental system to show quantum contextuality and our experiment represents the first one that closes the detection efficiency loophole for experimental tests of quantum contextuality in such a system.
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Um
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shuoming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China and Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Dong-Ling
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China and Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China and Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Lu-Ming
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kihwan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim