Two convergent NPA-like hierarchies for the quantum bilocal scenario

Characterising the correlations that arise from locally measuring a single part of a joint quantum system is one of the main problems of quantum information theory. The seminal work [M. Navascués et al., New J. Phys. 10, 073013 (2008)], known as the Navascués–Pironio–Acín (NPA) hierarchy, reformulated this question as a polynomial optimisation problem over noncommutative variables and proposed a convergent hierarchy of necessary conditions, each testable using semidefinite programming. More recently, the problem of characterising the quantum network correlations, which arise when locally measuring several independent quantum systems distributed in a network, has received considerable interest. Several generalisations of the NPA hierarchy, such as the scalar extension [A. Pozas-Kerstjens et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 140503 (2019)], were introduced while their converging sets remain unknown. In this work, we introduce a new bilocal factorisation NPA hierarchy, prove its equivalence to a modified bilocal scalar extension NPA hierarchy, and characterise its convergence in the case of the simplest network, the bilocal scenario. We further explore its relations with the other known generalisations.