Nonlocality of Quantum States can be Transitive

In a Bell test involving three parties, one may find a curious situation where the nonlocality in two bipartite subsystems forces the remaining bipartite subsystem to exhibit nonlocality. Post-quantum examples for this phenomenon, dubbed nonlocality transitivity, have been found in 2011. However, the question of whether nonlocality transitivity occurs within quantum theory has remained unresolved -- until now. Here, we provide the first affirmative answer to this question at the level of quantum states. Leveraging the possibility of Bell-inequality violation by tensoring, we analytically construct a pair of nonlocal bipartite states such that simultaneously realizing them in a tripartite system forces the remaining bipartite state to be nonlocal. En route to showing this, we prove that multiple copies of the \(W\)-state marginals uniquely determine the global compatible state. Furthermore, in contrast to Bell-nonlocality, we show that quantum steering already exhibits transitivity in a three-qubit setting, thus revealing another significant distinction between Bell-nonlocality and steering. We also discuss connections between the problem of nonlocality transitivity and the largely overlooked polygamous nature of nonlocality.