On the projective geometry of entanglement and contextuality

Bob Coecke

Maryam Bagherian

We develop a comprehensive axiomatic framework for quantum-inspired distance metrics on projective Hilbert spaces, providing a unified foundation that organizes and generalizes existing measures in quantum information theory. Starting from five fundamental axioms, projective invariance, unitary covariance, superposition sensitivity, entanglement awareness, and measurement contextuality, we show that any admissible distance depends solely on state overlap and establish the uniqueness of the Fubini-Study metric as the canonical geodesic distance. Our framework further yields a hierarchy of comparison results relating the Fubini-Study metric, Bures distance, Euclidean distance, measurement-based pseudometrics, and entanglement-sensitive distances. Key contributions include an entanglement-geometry complementarity principle, high-dimensional concentration bounds, and operational interpretations connecting distances to state discrimination and quantum metrology. This work places the geometry of quantum state spaces on a rigorous axiomatic footing, bridging abstract metric theory, information geometry, and operational quantum principles.

Abhi Adhikari

Shahabeddin Mostafanazhad aslmarand, Warner A. Miller, Doyeol Ahn +1 more

Raouf Dridi

I relate contextuality to line bundles. Line bundles are important in algebraic geometry, they determine through their global sections rational maps to projective spaces. I explain how such maps, if they exist, relate rationally the input and output of measurement based computation (MBQC) and show geometrically that, indeed, contextuality is a necessary resource for the computational advantage in MBQC. I also leverage the definition of MBQC to category theory and present it as a "subfunctor" of the spectral presheaf. In general, the MBQC functor is pointless whereas the computation is trivial.

Michel R. P. Planat