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arXiv:2102.00410 · Physical Review A

Revealing quantum contextuality using a single measurement device

Jaskaran Singh, Rajendra Singh Bhati, Arvind

Published Jan 3, 2023• 5 citations
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Abstract

In this paper we analyze the notion of measurement noncontextuality (MNC) and identify contextual scenarios which involve sequential measurements of only a single measurement device. We show that any noncontextual ontological model fails to explain the statistics of outcomes of a single carefully constructed positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) executed sequentially on a quantum system. The context of measurement arises from the different configurations in which the device can be used. We develop an inequality from the noncontextual (NC) ontic model, and construct a quantum situation involving measurements from the Klyachko-Can-Binicio\ifmmode \check{g}\else \v{g}\fi{}lu-Shumovsky (KCBS) inequality. We show that the resultant statistics arising from this device violate our NC inequality. This device can be generalized by incorporating measurements from arbitrary $n$-cycle contextuality inequalities of which $n=5$ corresponds to the KCBS inequality. We show that the NC and quantum bounds for various scenarios can be derived more easily using only the functional relationships between the outcomes for larger values $n$. This makes it one of the simpler contextual inequalities to analyze.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.107.012201

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In this paper we analyze the notion of measurement noncontextuality (MNC) and identify contextual scenarios which involve sequential measurements of only a single measurement device. We show that any noncontextual ontological model fails to explain the statistics of outcomes of a single carefully constructed positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) executed sequentially on a quantum system. The context of measurement arises from the different configurations in which the device can be used. We develop an inequality from the noncontextual (NC) ontic model, and construct a quantum situation involving measurements from the Klyachko-Can-Binicio\ifmmode \check{g}\else \v{g}\fi{}lu-Shumovsky (KCBS) inequality. We show that the resultant statistics arising from this device violate our NC inequality. This device can be generalized by incorporating measurements from arbitrary nnn-cycle contextuality inequalities of which n=5n=5n=5 corresponds to the KCBS inequality. We show that the NC and quantum bounds for various scenarios can be derived more easily using only the functional relationships between the outcomes for larger values nnn. This makes it one of the simpler contextual inequalities to analyze.
In this letter we generalize Spekkens' notion of measurement non-contextuality (NC). We show that any non-contextual ontological model based on this notion of contextuality fails to explain the statistics of outcomes of a single carefully constructed POVM executed sequentially on a quantum system. The POVM essentially forms a single measurement device. The context of measurement arises from the different configurations in which the device can be used. We develop an inequality from the non-contextual ontic model, and construct corresponding quantum situations where the measurement outcomes from the device violate this NC inequality. Our work brings out the hitherto unexplored implications of contextuality for a single measurement device, and paves the way for further study of consequences of contextuality for sequential measurements.
Quantum contextuality provides a fundamental signature of nonclassical behavior that cannot be explained by noncontextual hidden-variable models. We propose and experimentally implement a linear-optical setup for demonstrating Kochen-Specker contextuality via a violation of the KCBS inequality using single photons. Our scheme employs sequential measurements realized with linear-optical networks and on-off photodetectors. The construction ensures that each co-measured observable is implemented by the same physical operation across different contexts. Our experimental results demonstrate a clear violation of the KCBS inequality and robustness against photon loss. Beyond fundamental investigations, the proposed setup provides a practical tool for probing non-classicality and photon-number statistics of quantum states, which in turn enables the verification of single-photon sources.
When it isn't possible to tell two distinct experimental procedures apart purely from their input/output statistics, then it seems a plausible hypothesis that the two procedures must be physically identical. We call such a hypothesis "noncontextuality", an instance of Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernibles. Read in the contrapositive, this hypothesis entails that any physical distinctions between two experimental procedures must necessarily lead to a difference in their operational statistics. The results I present in this thesis concern the failure of this hypothesis -- a failure dubbed "contextuality" -- when one tries to embed an operational theory (such as quantum theory) in the ontological models framework. The Kochen-Specker theorem demonstrates the failure of noncontextuality for deterministic ontological models of quantum theory, i.e., those ontological models where the ontic/physical state of the system fixes the outcome of any projective measurement on the system in a deterministic manner. This thesis goes beyond the Kochen-Specker (KS) theorem by asking what operational facts must be verified in experiments to conclude that Nature does not admit noncontextual ontological models, not even indeterministic ones. This leads to noncontextuality inequalities that are robust to noise in the preparations and measurements. In the particular case of quantum theory, these inequalities are meaningful even when unsharp measurements (or POVMs) are allowed, a feature not shared by the traditional approach to KS-noncontextuality where unsharp measurements are excluded by fiat: allowing them renders even trivial POVMs (proportional to identity) maximally KS-contextual. The sense in which trivial POVMs are indeed "trivial" (or "noncontextual") is clear in our approach: they are simply too noisy to lead to violation of our noncontextuality inequalities.
In order to claim that one has experimentally tested whether a noncontextual ontological model could underlie certain measurement statistics in quantum theory, it is necessary to have a notion of noncontextuality that applies to unsharp measurements, i.e., those that can only be represented by positive operator-valued measures rather than projection-valued measures. This is because any realistic measurement necessarily has some nonvanishing amount of noise and therefore never achieves the ideal of sharpness. Assuming a generalized notion of noncontextuality that applies to arbitrary experimental procedures, it is shown that the outcome of a measurement depends deterministically on the ontic state of the system being measured if and only if it is associated with a projector. Hence for every unsharp measurement, its outcome necessarily has an indeterministic dependence on the ontic state. We defend this proposal against alternatives. In particular, we demonstrate why considerations parallel to Fine's theorem do not challenge this conclusion.
We present a study of quantum contextuality of three-dimensional mixed states for the Klyachko-Can-Binicio\ifmmode \breve{g}\else \u{g}\fi{}lu-Shumovsky (KCBS) and the Kurzy\ifmmode \acute{n}\else \'{n}\fi{}ski-Kaszlikowski (KK) noncontextuality inequalities. For any class of states whose eigenvalues are arranged in decreasing order, a universal set of measurements always exists for the KK inequality, whereas none exists for the KCBS inequality. This difference can be reflected from the spectral distribution of the overall measurement matrix. Our results would facilitate the error analysis for experimental setups, and our spectral method in the paper combined with graph theory could be useful in future studies on quantum contextuality.
Contextuality is regarded as a nonclassical feature, challenging our everyday intuition; quantum contextuality is currently seen as a resource for many applications in quantum computation, being responsible for quantum advantage over classical analogs. In our work, we adapt the NNN-cycle scenarios with odd NNN to multiple independent observers which measure the system sequentially. We analyze the possibility of violating the inequalities as a function of the number of observers and under different measurement protocols. We then reinterpret the results as an open quantum system where the environment is divided into fragments. In this context, the results show the emergence of noncontextuality in such a setting, bringing together the quantum behavior to our classical experience. We then compare such emergence of noncontextuality with that of objectivity under the ``environment as a witness'' paradigm.