Emergence of realism through quantum discord suppression in photonic weak measurements

Abstract The emergence of realism from the quantum domain, often associated with the suppression of quantum features, is a key aspect of the quantum-to-classical transition. In this work, we implement an experiment with Werner states subjected to weak measurements to investigate how quantum correlations influence the emergence of realism. Maximally entangled twin photons, generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion, are used to prepare Werner states. We employ a monitoring model that smoothly transitions between weak and strong nonselective measurements, along with an irrealism measure. Our findings demonstrate that quantum discord suppression induced by weak measurements, known as weak quantum discord, drives the emergence of realism. Additionally, our findings highlight the robustness of the irrealism measure in quantum correlation-based scenarios.