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arXiv:2609.10013

A Separation between Full-Rank PVM and Assumption-free Self-Testing

Ranyiliu Chen

quant-phSubmitted Sep 9, 2026• Announced Sep 10, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We construct a nonlocal game that self-tests a maximally entangled qubit strategy among pure full-Schmidt-rank projective strategies, but admits an inequivalent optimum using one nonprojective measurement. This resolves a conjecture of Baptista et al. on imposing full rank and projectivity simultaneously. The construction combines CHSH with an auxiliary game $G$ that forces deterministic answers under these assumptions and admits a trine POVM optimum without them. We classify the optimal correlations of $G$ as a line segment parametrized by the tracial states of $\mathbb{C}\oplus M_2(\mathbb{C})$. Projectivity on the state support removes the matrix summand, whereas projective dilations with nonzero nonabort probability have a nontracial local state whose zero left ideal is not two-sided. Finally, a family in local dimension six shows that the full-rank PVM self-test is not robust.

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18 pages

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