DEFESA DE TESE DE DOUTORADO #459 – PATRICK MATHEUS RAMOS LIMA – 24/06/2026

This thesis presents an experimental investigation into the foundations of quantum mechanics, focusing on the empirical certification of non-classicality using photonic systems. The research is organized into three experimental projects of escalating theoretical and formal complexity.

In the first project, we experimentally implement the entropic complementarity relations in a photonic system. We configure a particle-detector system using internal degrees of freedom of single photons to map the informational trade-offs between path predictability and interference visibility, demonstrating that these entropic metrics accurately characterize the wave-particle duality and the redistribution of information between the system and its environment.

The second study examines Theory-Independent Context Incompatibility (TICI) \cite{storrer2023, storrer2026}. This formalism incorporates the quantum state into the incompatibility definition and introduces a quantifier for the degree of incompatibility. We experimentally evaluate this quantifier as a function of both the state and the observables, providing evidence that context incompatibility serves as an operational certification of non-classicality.

Finally, the thesis investigates non-classical causal structures. We implement a bipartite ordered process, $W_{224}^{\Phi^{-}}$, which is characterized through process tomography. By measuring the causal witness $S$, we demonstrate that the supermap of this process lies outside the set of classical Common-Cause and Direct-Cause (CCDC) structures, $\mathcal{L}_{\text{CCDC}}$ \cite{nery2022, nery2021}.

These projects demonstrate the capacity of photonic systems to probe the limits of quantum mechanics across these diverse formalisms, providing a systematic experimental study of the underlying physical structure.