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slug: baumer-2024-triangle-symmetric-local-quarter bibkey: baumer2024trianglelocal doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2405.08939 url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.08939v1 triage: theorem motivation_gids:

  • D5/S3/Quantum/Entanglement/TriangleSymmetricLocalRefutation.result

A fully symmetric triangle-local distribution with p(A = B = C) above 1/4

Problem

E. Bäumer, V. Gitton, T. Kriváchy, N. Gisin and R. Renner (arXiv:2405.08939, quant-ph; Phys. Rev. A 111, 052453 (2025)) study classical (local) models in the triangle network with four outcomes per party. Their best local fully symmetric construction has p(A = B = C) = 1/4, and their conclusion states:

Open problem. Does there exist a distribution p(A,B,C) that is local in the triangle network and fully symmetric such that p(A=B=C) > 1/4?

Issue #11256 fixes the reading. Locality is eq. trilocal: sources uniform on [0, 1] and measurable conditional distributions p_A(a|β,γ), p_B(b|γ,α), p_C(c|α,β). Full symmetry is invariance under every permutation of the parties and every joint relabelling of the four outcomes. The formal claim is the negative answer, s₁₁₁(p) ≤ 1/4 for every local fully symmetric p; the result refutes it, so the answer is yes.

Motivation

Fully symmetric distributions with four outcomes include the distribution of the Elegant Joint Measurement, the main candidate for noise-robust quantum nonlocality in the triangle network, and the local value of p(A = B = C) calibrates the Bell-type inequalities used to certify such nonlocality. The frozen declaration D5/S3/Quantum/Entanglement/TriangleSymmetricLocalRefutation.result gives a local fully symmetric distribution with p(A = B = C) = 41/144.

Gap

Issue #11256 preregisters the reading, the route and the literature check. The paper has one arXiv version. INSPIRE lists 6 citing records and OpenAlex one citing work (2026-09-29); the five with arXiv sources were read and none gives a local fully symmetric model with p(A = B = C) > 1/4. arXiv queries on the triangle network since 2024-05 found no further answer.

These readings are not-found-in-searched-scope; they do not establish an exhaustive worldwide literature search, priority, or the absence of an independent answer.

Route

  1. Each source sends one of the 12 ordered pairs x = (x₁, x₂) of distinct outcomes, uniformly; every party applies f(x, y) = x₂ if x₂ ∈ {y₁, y₂} and x₁ otherwise, with a = f(β, γ), b = f(γ, α), c = f(α, β).
  2. Cutting [0, 1] into 12 cells of measure 1/12 turns this into deterministic responses on [0, 1]; the integral factorises over the cells, so p(a, b, c) is the number of source triples with outputs (a, b, c) divided by 1728.
  3. A kernel-checked count gives 123, 19 or 23 triples according to whether one, two or three outcomes are distinct. This pattern is invariant under outcome relabellings and party permutations, and p(A = B = C) = 492/1728 = 41/144.

Falsifier

The answer would change if locality required something the construction lacks, for instance sources that are not uniform on [0, 1], or if full symmetry were read as more than invariance under party permutations and joint outcome relabellings.

Evidence

Exact enumeration (issue #11256) of all 1728 source triples reproduces the counts, full symmetry, and s₁₁₁ = 41/144; the non-equivariant control rule min(x₁, y₁) is correctly flagged as not relabelling-invariant.

The canonical source is D5/S3/Quantum/Entanglement/TriangleSymmetricLocalRefutation.lean. Its public declarations are IsTriangleLocal, FullySymmetric, s111, claim and result. The frozen module state has statement identity sha256:26a81b4ab22f4c2a4d7b9f52ab319384d08eb0dea0b33b5ab91b298667c902cd. The result declaration has statement identity sha256:ea0c534a0eaff0cb22e5d4563e2746d305896843b175bba67bb27540e7b56630. The Freeze event is sha256:9fccf9936af1b6d9ac48e55a56909f48f7170b7fbf3980bf2470b9277d26859e and has no project-level frozen prerequisites. The proof uses only the standard axioms propext, Classical.choice and Quot.sound; no sorry, native_decide, or new axiom.

Triage

Tier 1 external named open problem, preregistered in issue #11256 before any Lean. theorem; resolution refuted (the negative answer is refuted, so the open problem is answered yes). The public theorem has proof_shape: content: the reduction of the triangle integral to a normalised count and the kernel-checked count are proved in the module. Its escape witness is form (2), and its admission basis is open-problem-resolution. Utility kind=certified-instance; basis=refutes with typed claim and result.

ASSUMED-UNVERIFIED

The published PRA text was not read, so it is unverified whether the open problem was edited there. The bounded literature check does not establish exhaustive worldwide novelty, priority, or the absence of an independent answer. The Lean kernel does not authenticate the external source or its version history.