Quantum simulacra

Abstract

Here we analyze the creation of quantum simulacra: phenomena that emerge from treating a Hermitian or non-Hermitian quantum system in metrics other than the standard $L^{2}$. Changing the metric redefines the set of system observables and thus the experimental arrangement for their measurement, making quantum contextuality and microscopic reality metric-dependent. The simulacra therefore consist, on the one hand, of a resizing of the status of quantum measurement, which has always occupied a central role in quantum mechanics: beyond the connection between quantum and classical dynamics, measurements performed in an appropriate metric can emulate a microscopic reality distinct from that prescribed by the Hamiltonian. On the other hand, simulacra provide a route to implementing quantum operations that lie beyond the reach of the $L^2$ metric. Quantum simulacra offer, as an example, an explanation for the recent observation of the violation of Bell inequalities with unentangled photons [Sci. Adv. \textbf{11}, eadr1794 (2025)]: photons that are separable in $L^2$ metric, become entangled when analyzed within a new metric framework. Simulacrum comes at the cost of implementing measurements of the metric-redefined observables; to address this challenge, we propose a scheme combining positive operator-valued measures with postselected subensembles.