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arXiv:0705.0181 · Physical Review Letters

Is There Contextuality for a Single Qubit?

Andrzej Grudka, Paweł Kurzyński

Published Apr 21, 2008• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Cabello and Nakamura have shown [A. Cabello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 190401 (2003)10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.190401] that the Kochen-Specker theorem can be applied to two-dimensional systems if one uses positive operator-valued measures (POVM). We show that the contextuality in their models is not of the Kochen-Specker type, but it is rather a result of not keeping track of the whole system on which the measurement is performed. This is connected to the fact that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the POVM elements and projectors on the extended Hilbert space, and the same POVM element has to originate from two different projectors when used in Cabello-Nakamura models. Moreover, we propose a hidden-variable formulation of the above models.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.100.160401

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Cabello and Nakamura have shown [A. Cabello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 190401 (2003)10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.190401] that the Kochen-Specker theorem can be applied to two-dimensional systems if one uses positive operator-valued measures (POVM). We show that the contextuality in their models is not of the Kochen-Specker type, but it is rather a result of not keeping track of the whole system on which the measurement is performed. This is connected to the fact that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the POVM elements and projectors on the extended Hilbert space, and the same POVM element has to originate from two different projectors when used in Cabello-Nakamura models. Moreover, we propose a hidden-variable formulation of the above models.
One of the main theorems on the impossibility of hidden variables in quantum mechanics is Kochen-Specker theorem (KS). This theorem says that any hidden variable theory that satisfies quantum mechanics must be contextual. More specifically, it asserts that, in Hilbert space of dimension ≥ 3, it is impossible to associate definite numerical values, 1 or 0, with every projection operator Pm, in such a way that, if a set of commuting Pm satisfies 1=ΣmP, the corresponding values will also satisfy . Since the first proof of Kochen and Specker using 117 vectors in R3, there were many attempts to reduce the number of vector either via conceiving ingenious models or extending the system being considered to higher dimension. By considering eight dimensional three qubits system, we found a state dependent proof that requires only five vectors. The state that we assign value of 1 is the ray that arises from intersection of two planes. The recent advancements show that the KS theorem proof can be extended to two dimensional quantum system through generalized measurement represented by positive operator-valued measured (POVM). In POVMs the number of available outcomes of a measurement may be higher than the dimensionality of the Hilbert space and N-outcome generalized measurement is represented by N-element POVM which consists of N positive semidefinite operators {}dE that sum to identity. Each pair of elements is not mutually orthogonal if the number of outcome of measurements is bigger than the dimensionality. In terms of POVM, Kochen-Specker theorem asserts that and could not be satisfied for . We developed a general model that enables us to generate different sizes of the POVM for the proof of the Kochen-Specker theorem. We show that the current simplest Nakamura model is in fact a special case of our model. W also provide another model which is as simple as the Nakamura’s but consists of different sets of POVM.
The Kochen-Specker theorem (KS) states that Ilonconrextual hidden variable theories are incompatible with quantum mechanics. Since the first proof of the theorem, von Neumann projection measurement has been used and the quantum system considered has dimensionality of at least three. However, recently generalized measurements represented by positive-operator-va!ued measures (POVM) have been applied to extend the proof to two dimensional quantum systems. This note gives numerical calculations on the first KS proof for a single qubit.
The Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem establishes the impossibility of a noncontextual hidden variable model of quantum theory, or equivalently, that quantum theory is contextual. In this paper, an operational definition of contextuality is introduced which generalizes the standard notion in three ways: (i) it applies to arbitrary operational theories rather than just quantum theory, (ii) it applies to arbitrary experimental procedures rather than just sharp measurements, and (iii) it applies to a broad class of ontological models of quantum theory rather than just deterministic hidden variable models. We derive three no-go theorems for ontological models, each based on an assumption of noncontextuality for a different sort of experimental procedure; one for preparation procedures, another for unsharp measurement procedures (that is, measurement procedures associated with positive-operator valued measures), and a third for transformation procedures. All three proofs apply to two-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and are therefore stronger than traditional proofs of contextuality.
Quantum contextuality is a concept used to describe the property of hidden-variable theory that measurement outcomes predetermined by the hidden variables depend on the measurement context. The term measurement context can have different meanings, giving rise to different flavours of quantum contextuality. The first discovered flavour is Kochen-Specker (KS) contextuality where measurement outcomes will depend on what compatible measurements are jointly performed with the selected measurement. Another flavour, here to be compared with KS contextuality, is that referred to in Bohmian mechanics where outcomes of some specific measurements are not completely specified by the model state, but depend also on specifics of the measurement device used. It has been claimed that this type of Bohmian contextuality is necessary to enable KS contextuality in a hidden variable model. In this paper we show that this is not the case. The recently proposed Contextual Ontological Model (COM) [Hindlycke and Larsson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2022] produces KS contextual predictions but does not have the Bohmian contextuality; the outcome of every measurement allowed by COM can be predicted from the model state itself. This distinguishes Bohmian contextuality from KS contextuality, and enables individual study of the two concepts.
Meyer [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3751 (1999)] recently showed that the Kochen-Specker theorem, which demonstrates the impossibility of a deterministic hidden variable description of ideal spin measurements on a spin 1 particle, can be effectively nullified if only finite precision measurements are considered. We generalize this result: one can ascribe consistent outcomes to a dense subset of the set of projection valued measurements, or to a dense subset of the set of positive operator valued measurements, on any finite dimensional system. Hence no Kochen-Specker-like contradiction can rule out hidden variable theories indistinguishable from quantum theory by finite precision measurements in either class.