The optimal success probability of a communication game sets fundamental limitations on an operational theory. The quantum advantage of a parity oblivious random access code (PORAC), a communication game, over classical resources reveals the preparation contextuality of quantum theory [R. W. Spekkens et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 010401 (2009)]. The optimal quantum advantage in the $N$-dit PORAC game for finite dimensions is an open problem. Here, we show that the degree of uncertainty allowed in an operational theory determines the amount of preparation contextuality. We connect the upper bound of the fine-grained uncertainty relation to the success probability of a PORAC game played with the quantum resource. Subsequently, we find the optimal success probability for a 2-dit PORAC game using mutually unbiased bases for the decoding strategy. Finally, we also derive an upper bound on the quantum advantage for the $N$-dit PORAC game.
The optimal success probability of a communication game sets fundamental limitations on an operational theory. The quantum advantage of a parity oblivious random access code (PORAC), a communication game, over classical resources reveals the preparation contextuality of quantum theory [R. W. Spekkens et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 010401 (2009)]. The optimal quantum advantage in the N-dit PORAC game for finite dimensions is an open problem. Here, we show that the degree of uncertainty allowed in an operational theory determines the amount of preparation contextuality. We connect the upper bound of the fine-grained uncertainty relation to the success probability of a PORAC game played with the quantum resource. Subsequently, we find the optimal success probability for a 2-dit PORAC game using mutually unbiased bases for the decoding strategy. Finally, we also derive an upper bound on the quantum advantage for the N-dit PORAC game.
Abstract The parity-oblivious random-access-code (PORAC) is a class of communication games involving a sender (Alice) and a receiver (Bob). In such games, Alice’s amount of communication to Bob is constraint by the parity-oblivious (PO) conditions, so that the parity information of her inputs remains oblivious to Bob. The PO condition in an operational theory is equivalently represented in an ontological model that satisfies the preparation noncontextuality. In this paper, we provide a nontrivial generalization of the existing two-level PORAC and derive the winning probability of the game in the preparation noncontextual ontological model. We demonstrate that the quantum theory outperforms the preparation noncontextual model by predicting higher winning probability in our generalized PORAC.
In [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 010401 (2009)], Spekkens et al. have shown that quantum preparation contextuality can power the parity-oblivious multiplexing (POM) task. The bound on the optimal success probability of an n-bit POM task performed with the classical resources was shown to be the same as in a preparation noncontextual theory. This noncontextual bound is violated if the task is performed with quantum resources. While in the 2-bit POM task the optimal quantum success probability is achieved, in the 3-bit case optimality was left as an open question. In this paper, we show that the quantum success probability of an n-bit POM task is solely dependent on a suitable Bell expression and the optimal value of it optimizes the success probability of the said POM task. Further, we discuss how the degree of quantum preparation contextuality restricts the amount of quantum violations of Bell's inequalities, and consequently, the success probability of a POM task.
Replacing the task of retrieval with exclusion changes how preparation contextuality manifests operationally under parity-oblivious constraints, with exclusion showing a quantum advantage where retrieval does not. We introduce the parity-oblivious random exclusion code (POREC) and show that for prime symbol size m, classical and preparation-noncontextual encodings provide a tight noncontextual bound. For the first nontrivial case (two digits, three symbols), our derived exact qubit optimum violates this bound, in contrast to parity-oblivious retrieval, which displays no quantum advantage. This characteristic difference is absent without parity constraints. For general prime m, qubit strategies achieve a quantum-to-noncontextual gap that grows linearly relative to the random exclusion code (REC) gap, exceeding both parity-oblivious retrieval and standard REC. The exact qubit bound yields a sharp semi-device-independent certification of dimension d≥3. Our analysis of noise robustness demonstrates POREC to be amenable for experimental implementation on existing prepare-and-measure platforms, establishing parity-oblivious exclusion as a distinct operational probe of preparation contextuality, as well as a practical information processing protocol with wide applications.
The quantum ontological feature of contextuality apart from being central to foundations of quantum theory forms the basis of quantum advantage in a multitude of information processing tasks. In particular, the contextuality of preparation procedures was shown to power a particular two-party information processing task “parity oblivious multiplexing” (Spekkens et al. Phys Rev Lett 102:010401 (2009). Specifically, it was shown that there exists a limit to how well any preparation noncontextual theory can perform in this task. This limit constitutes a noncontextuality inequality. Moreover, the authors demonstrated quantum violation of this inequality along with preparation contextuality associated with the ontic description underlying two-level completely mixed quantum state. In this work, we extend these arguments to apply to arbitrary dimensions by introducing a class of two-party information processing tasks, namely d-level parity oblivious random access codes. We analytically obtain classical (or equivalently preparation noncontextual) bounds on the success probability for these tasks for arbitrary d. For each value of d, this bound constitutes a unique noncontextuality inequality. Remarkably, these bounds are independent of the amount of communication. Furthermore, we find a classical protocol utilizing a dc=d -dimensional classical message which saturates this bound. In order to establish nontriviality of these inequalities, we provide evidence of significant quantum violations. Specifically, by numerical techniques, we show that for d=3,…,10 , the noncontextuality bound is violated by quantum theory. (1) We provide explicit quantum protocols which violate the associated noncontextuality inequality for d=3,4,5 employing dq=d -leveled quantum systems. (2) Using see-saw semi-definite programming (SDP) technique, we find evidence (lower bounds) of significant quantum violation of these inequalities for d=3,…,10 . (3) With the help of state-of-the-art (NPA-hierarchy like) SDP technique, we provide upper bounds (independent of the dimension of the involved quantum systems) on quantum violation for d=3,…,10 . The introduced class of information tasks, thus, provides for operational depiction of preparation contextuality of the ontic description underlying mixed higher dimensional quantum systems.
Preparation contextuality is often manifested operationally through a quantitative advantage over preparation-noncontextual models in information-processing tasks, yet quantum theory typically falls short of perfect success. Here we introduce a parity-oblivious Hidden Matching task that instead yields an all-vs-nothing manifestation of preparation contextuality. Alice encodes an n-bit string so that her message reveals no information about any input parity other than the two-bit parities. Bob, given a perfect matching on the input positions, must output an edge of the matching together with the parity of its two bits. A quantum protocol using a single ⌈log2n⌉-qubit message satisfies the parity-obliviousness constraint and succeeds with certainty. We prove that no preparation-noncontextual model achieves perfect success for any even n≥6. The result holds for arbitrary ontic state spaces and assumes neither outcome determinism nor measurement noncontextuality. For n=6 and n=8, the optimal noncontextual success probabilities are 4/5 and 3/4, respectively, while asymptotically the optimal noncontextual success probability is 1/2+Θ(1/n). Our asymptotic upper bound follows from a Fourier-analytic sum rule derived via hypercontractivity on the Boolean hypercube. The resulting separation is qualitative rather than merely quantitative: quantum theory achieves perfect success, whereas preparation-noncontextual models cannot. We aslo show that at n=8 the noncontextual bound remains 3/4 even when Bob is restricted to just suitable 4 of the 105 possible perfect matchings, bringing the effect within experimental reach.
Random Access Codes is an information task that has been extensively studied and found many applications in quantum information. In this scenario, Alice receives an n-bit string x, and wishes to encode x into a quantum state rho_x, such that Bob, when receiving the state rho_x, can choose any bit i in [n] and recover the input bit x_i with high probability. Here we study a variant called parity-oblivious random acres codes, where we impose the cryptographic property that Bob cannot infer any information about the parity of any subset of bits of the input, apart form the single bits x_i. We provide the optimal quantum parity-oblivious random access codes and show that they are asymptotically better than the optimal classical ones. For this, we relate such encodings to a non-local game and provide tight bounds for the success probability of the non-local game via semi-definite programming. Our results provide a large non-contextuality inequality violation and resolve the main open question in [Spekkens et al., Phys. Review Letters, 2009].