Abstract

A paramount topic in quantum foundations, rooted in the study of the EPR paradox and Bell inequalities, is that of characterizing quantum theory in terms of the space-like correlations it allows. Here we show that to focus only on space-like correlations is not enough: we explicitly construct a toy model theory that, while not contradicting classical and quantum theories at the level of space-like correlations, still displays an anomalous behavior in its time-like correlations. We call this anomaly, quantified in terms of a specific communication game, the "hypersignaling" phenomena. We hence conclude that the "principle of quantumness," if it exists, cannot be found in space-like correlations alone: nontrivial constraints need to be imposed also on time-like correlations, in order to exclude hypersignaling theories.